Gundam Wing: Vengeance of Wars
by Shadow Chaser
Summary: Sequel to After War: Betrayal runs rampant among the Gundam pilots, but is it deliberate or another deadly scheme in the tangled webs of Locke Dabnerba's sinister plans? The Gpilots must defend Relena Peacecraft's peace once more! [Alternate Universe]


New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Vengeance of Wars

By: Shadow Chaser

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Author's Notes:

Okay, some of you wondered why I put Noin and Relena in the backseat of my After War story, I'm sorry. But in this one, they'll have more of an action, especially Noin, since she's strong female character in the series. Also, as you can see, I goofed up and said that the sequel will feature the Gundam pilots' kids, but looks like no. I might do one like that, but it's still in the works. This fiction will feature spoilers from Episode Zero (a manga), the series (duh), Endless Waltz (duh), and Blind Target (another manga). Oh, and a special reminder…thanks Chibi Shadow Chaser, Onyx, Caroline, and Bunny for helping me with all my fictions (Star Wars, Gundam Wing, Ronin Warriors), I really appreciate your help. So enjoy the story, and keep watching Gundam Wing! Started: 4/19/00. Completed: 5/16/00.

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Year: AC 200

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Characters:

Heero Yuy- male from Colony 01 - Gundam Wing Zero

Duo Maxwell- male from Colony 02 - Gundam Deathscythe Hell

Trowa Barton- male from Colony 03 - Gundam Heavyarms Kai

Quatre Raberba Winner- male from Colony 04 - Gundam Sandrock Kai

Wufei Chaing- male from Colony 05 - Gundam Altron

Zechs Merquise- male from Northern Europe - MS-Gundam Tallgeese III

Locke Dabnerba- female from North America - Gundam Columbia-Zero

Sierra Comino- female from England - MS Orion Custom 

Lucrezia Noin- female from Italy - MS Lafayette

Relena Peacecraft- female from Northern Europe

Mariemaia Kushrenada- female from Colony 03

Doctor Rainier Newman- male from Colony 02

Azure "Hawk" Williams- female from Canada

Ione Kurama- female from Arabia

**__**

Recap:

It has been one year since the uprising by a faction wanting to return to the former glory of the Romefeller Empire, calling themselves Neo Romefeller, has been quelled down. All of the leaders of the faction were thought to be killed except for one. Now the pilots get on with their usual lives, but something is amist. Someone that has returned to have her revenge on the Gundam pilots.

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Story:

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Prologue: (a few days before Chapter 1)

Trowa Barton laid in his bed, gazing at the darkened ceiling of his trailer. The lively sounds of the circus still performing late in the night rumbled and shook the walls. It was his night off and Ringmaster Weaver said that he didn't have to perform if he didn't want to. Trowa chose the option to rest. _So, why can't I sleep?_ He questioned to himself and rose up from his bed. He went out of his trailer and glanced at the main tent that housed about a couple of thousand people and the performers.

"What's the matter Trowa?" Catherine spoke up beside him, as she put a slender hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know…I feel as if something's up, something…elusive," Trowa replied turning around to face his sister.

"Come on Trowa, you're having those dreams again," Catherine kidded then quieted as she noticed the serious look on her younger brother's face, "does it have to do with Preventer?"

"Maybe," Trowa replied then looked at her, "tell Weaver I'll be gone for a couple of hours. I'm headed towards Nairobi Base to check in with Noin."

"Okay," Catherine said softly as Trowa left her and got onto his motorcycle.

Trowa started up the bike and sped off. He drove down a non-lit highway; the only thing that showed the road was the headlight on his bike. Suddenly there was a snapping sound and Trowa felt his bike loose control and he skidded painfully to a stop. He winced as he slowly rose up, and looked around cautiously. Five figures appeared before him, the moonlight illuminating their forms and Trowa noticed each held an automatic machine gun.

"What do you want?" he asked the approaching figures.

"Surrender now, Heavyarms and we will not hurt you," one of the figures said.

Trowa narrowed his green eyes and considered his options. He could fight his way out, but his gun was still on the motorcycle and the panels looked broken, or he could surrender. He was about to make a move when suddenly there was a painful hit to his neck and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

"This is Hawk, we've captured Trowa Barton. He'll do us good for the Hidden Agent Program," one of the figures replied and pulled off her black mask. The moonlight streamed down her, accenting her Icelandic beauty. She had golden blonde hair and bright green eyes the seemed to be chiseled from frozen ice and lava.

"Good, bring him to the Lunar Colony," a male voice replied back, anticipation bubbling in the voice.

"As ordered," Hawk replied, then shut the link off. She glanced at the fallen Trowa Barton and reached a hand to stroke his hair. "So sad…you never realized how much you've helped me in the Egyptian mission," she said softly.

***

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Chapter 1- Out There…

Sierra Comino glared darkly out into the endless blackness of space dotted with shining little stars, her gray eyes held an internal fire of hatred within. She hated the Winner family; even more so, after she had gotten word that her brother Tano had died during the fight for Neo Romefeller. _Quatre Winner, age twenty. Head of the Winner Corporation…he will meet his end with me_, she thought as she released her right hand from one of her joysticks on her mobile suit and touched a medallion that had a picture of her and her brother together before he went with Project Totality for Neo Romefeller. She was once called Thalia Carson, but that was before her family was disgraced by Colony 04 and they left, changing their name.

"Comino, are you there?" a voice startled her out of her musings and she realized that her group leader had been signaling her for the last few minutes.

"Sorry sir, just thinking how I want my revenge to be, sweet or painful," Sierra lied, hoping that her Taurus group leader would buy the lie.

"Don't worry Sierra, you'll get your chance soon enough. All right peoples we've got orders from Premier Dabnerba herself to go to Colony 01 and disrupt their communications function and assassinate the leader of that Colony," Taran Tacit, the leader of the Taurus group replied.

A chorus of 'yes sir' came back and Sierra smiled quietly to herself. With this new faction, the Omicron Empire, she will have her revenge soon enough. _Quatre Raberba Winner, you will meet your end in space_, she thought as she throttled her Taurus mobile suit and shot off with the rest of the group towards Colony 01.

***

Duo Maxwell sat back on leather reclining chair and closed his cobalt blue eyes in contentment. A warm breeze lifted some of his brown hair tied in it's usual braid, and smacked it against his face. He felt drowsy and started to doze off when a sharp kick to his legs hanging from the recliner brought him back to the real world.

"Huh? What?" Duo asked groggily, trying to get sleep out of his eyes. He looked up and saw Heero glaring at him. Chaing was next to him, shaking his head as if he was a father shunning a young boy.

"Phone for you from Howard," Heero said folding his arms across his chest and walked to a computer console and sat down in front of it.

"Tell the old man that I'm sleeping here," Duo mumbled and closed his eyes once more.

"You think hair cutting would be good?" Duo heard Chaing asked as a slight grating sound was heard.

"Fine by me," Duo heard Heero reply and he had an inkling of something bad that was going to happen. He heard the sharp rasping of scissors being snapped, and realized that his friends were going to cut his braid.

"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting my hair," Duo said warning them as he shot out of his comfortable seat and backed towards the door, eyeing them warily especially the scissors on Chaing's left hand. There was the snap of the scissors and Duo ran out of the room, quickly as possible wondering what had gotten into his friends.

"Duo! Where are you going?" he heard Hildre ask as he ran past her.

"Just get Heero and Wufei away from me. They're holding scissors," Duo yelled back as he peeled into the communications room and locked the door behind him.

"Maxwell here, what's up Howard?" Duo asked, as a fizzled picture of the old spiky haired man appeared on a screen.

"Hey Duo, there's a number of titanium and gundanium being shipped from Colony 04 to the asteroid fields. You might want to check with Quatre Winner about the shipment since he owns most of the corporation that's shipping these items," Howard replied, and Duo nodded.

"Thanks old man. I'll check in with you later," Duo said and shut the link off. He fiddled with the end of his braid as he sat back in his chair thinking to himself. _Why would Quatre order a whole shipment of titanium and gundanium out to the asteroid field? Come to think of it, he has been acting a bit weird lately_, Duo thought as he punched a few codes that would reach him to Colony 04, where the pilot of the Sandrock Kai was.

***

Heero Yuy sat back in a high-backed chair in front of a computer monitor. The slight humming sound of the computer filtered through his ears. He smiled to himself, pleased that Chaing and his plan worked perfectly.

"Do you think he'll avoid this room?" Chaing asked him as he placed the scissors on the table next to the monitor.

"Yes, besides, what was the mission that Sally gave you?" Heero replied, changing the subject.

"Sources state that there is an influxtuation of mobile suit production at the moon base. Preventer didn't order any so they want me and you to check it out undercover," Chaing said as Heero glanced at the Chinese warrior.

"Well, in local news, it says that a unknown corporation calling themselves Omicron Industries are responsible for this. They seem to get their materials from Winner Corporation and most of the shipments are going to the asteroid belts," Heero stated then tapped a few keys and brought up a file on an unusual looking mobile suit.

"What's that?" Chaing asked, crossing his arms as he peered over Heero's shoulder to look at the mobile suit that was a dark blue color and had was holding a massive beam cannon.

"The Orion, a cross breed of the _Galaxia_ and the Taurus mobile suit. Noin says that's that they're producing in the moon base factories. I'll decided whether or not to destroy it when we get there," Heero replied, and got up from the station.

"As ordered, let's go," Chaing said and they left the room, headed towards a discreet shuttle that held Chaing's mobile suit the Gundam Altron. It was disguised so no one will suspect Preventer or the Gundam pilots were there.

***

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Chapter 2- Strangers Like Me

Quatre Raberba Winner rubbed his blue eyes, tired from looking over documents that were reports by executives of each branch of the Winner Corporation. He stretched, yawning in the process and glanced at his desk clock, it was only 2:34 PM in the afternoon. _This is a long day, I really need a vacation_, Quatre thought to himself as he got up from his leather chair and walked around, trying to get the knots out of his muscles. He rotated his left arm, wincing slightly as a twinge of pain shot through. Although it was fully healed after one year, his sister told him that his arm would always be weaker than what it was before. There was a knock to his office door and Quatre glanced at it.

"Come in," he said and smiled as his friend and loyal soldier, Rashid Kurama entered. Behind him was a young lady about eighteen years of age.

"Master Quatre, am I bothering you?" Rashid asked, a big grin on his face, making his wooly bread look intimidating.

"No, not at all Rashid, just taking a break from looking over the reports," Quatre replied and gestured to the two people to sit in the couches in his office. He saw Rashid shake his head no and was puzzled.

"Master Quatre, this is my niece, Ione Kurama. She just joined us after a training on the Arabic grounds of Earth," Rashid said, and the young lady stepped forward.

Quatre shook hands with her, surprised at her strong grip. Immediately, he liked her and found that she was very familiar, but couldn't place it. She had shoulder length sandy blonde hair and sharp deep ocean blue eyes.

"Pleased to meet the great pilot of the Sandrock Kai," Ione said her soprano voice had a hint of Arabic accent in it.

Quatre blushed a bit, and released her hand. "No one's that great," he murmured then a sudden beep came from his computer. He looked apologetically at the two Maganacs then went around his desk to receive the message.

"Hey Quatre, what's up?" Duo said, his face and voice a bit fuzzy from the long distanced communication.

"Nothing much Duo, you seemed worried, what's wrong?" Quatre asked puzzled at the usually hyperactive American who looked somber.

"You get your usual reports from the executives right?" Duo asked and Quatre nodded, "what do those reports say?"

"Just the usual about higher wages, less work hours, and shipment all okay," Quatre replied and some wrinkle lines appeared on his forehead as he raised his eyebrows in puzzlement.

"Did you read over the shipments?" Duo asked, and Quatre was getting slightly pissed off at his friend asking questions instead of answering them.

"Yes," Quatre said through slightly clenched teeth, "they say that the shipment to the moon is on schedule. And at the moon, they say that they're building up more domes for people to live in. Also the shipment to Mars is on schedule too, the terraforming project is ahead of schedule."

"Nothing on the shipping to the asteroid belt?" Duo asked and Quatre shook his head no.

"Damn, something's up," Duo muttered glancing off screen then back on, "you sure?"

"Dammit Duo! Just tell me what the hell is wrong!" Quatre yelled none too loudly, forgetting he had company over. He glanced up and saw Rashid and Ione who just waved him an 'it's all right' wave. He glanced back at Duo who looked kind of freaked.

"Boy, someone is in a pissed off mood," Duo muttered, "anyway, there's been reports that your corporation's shipping gundanium and titanium to the asteroid field for some unknown reason."

"You sure?" Quatre asked, as he tried to calm down his temper.

"Positive…" Duo started then static took over and suddenly the lights and all power to the room shut off, plunging them into darkness, only the faint light of the sun illuminating the office.

"What the hell happened," Quatre heard Ione comment as he pressed a few buttons that were supposed to start up the back-up generator. Nothing came on; no lights or back-up power source. Suddenly the monitor Quatre was looking at flashed on and a face covered with a black mask appeared.

"Now, all of you might be wondering who the hell am I? Well, just to let you guys know, here's a special treat for all you who are watching this, and Preventer, I mean you. Colony 01…a nice place to live, spacious and pretty, but a goddamned annoyance!" the black masked man said and shoved an old man on to the screen.

"That's…the Colony 01 leader, Première Dumas Prescott," Rashid breathed in wonderment as he and Ione came around to look over Quatre's shoulder.

"Yep, if all of you guess right, that's Colony 01's leader. Now," the man started and held up a gun to the Premiere's head, "one shot, and bang! He's gone; an annoyance to the development of the Omicron Empire gone."

Quatre jumped as the gun pointing to Prescott's head fired, and a little blood spill on to the camera. The clear sound of the body falling to the ground echoed through Quatre's head and he staggered a bit as he felt waves of pain and anguish by colonists and other viewers' flow through paralyzing him. Another wave of pain rushed through, this time it was distinctly familiar, but he couldn't place the source.

"Master, are you all right?" he heard Rashid's voice from faraway. Everything was so dim, so faraway as Quatre retreated into his psyche link with the galaxy, searching… He did not notice the ground rushing up to him as he collapsed.

***

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Chapter 3- A Sacrifice

Heero hurried quickly through the busy area of the moon colony. He didn't really like crowded areas and the garnishing lights seemed to drill into his head. He reached the underground levels and smiled grimly.

"Chaing, you have the explosives?" Heero asked, not turning around to face the pilot of the Altron as he motioned to him.

Chaing dropped one the two packs he was carrying into Heero's outstretched hand and went in one direction. "Meet with you back on the shuttle in about thirty minutes," Chaing said before disappearing down another hallway.

Heero glanced at his retreating form then headed down a narrow passage marked _Reactor Core_. He took out his handgun as he went deeper underground, and suddenly stopped as metallic footsteps echoed through the hallway. Heero ducked behind a wall and watched carefully as a group of about five robots marched past his hiding place. _Since when did moon base have robots?_ Heero wondered as he crept out and continued on. He placed various magnetic bombs that stuck to the core walls then headed towards the door.

"This is Heero, mission accomplished," Heero spoke into a small comlink that established a direct link to Chaing.

"All done here," Chaing replied back and Heero jogged towards the exit.

"Hold it right there Wing Zero," a familiar voice said from Heero's past and he turned slowly around to face a young Asian lady with long raven black hair and sharp almond shaped silver eyes that seemed to bore into his Prussian blue ones. The hair and eyes were different, but the shape of the face, posture of the body and cool voice made no mistake as to the identity of the lady.

"You're supposed to be dead…Locke Dabnerba," Heero growled as he pointed his gun straight at her heart. He narrowed his eyes as Locke threw her head back and laughed lightly.

"Heero Yuy, do you have to state my untimely death of my other hive-mind clones? You're sure a charmer," Locke said lightly then her voice dropped into what it was before, "you caused me so much trouble, so why don't I just end it for you?"

Faster than Heero could follow Locke snatched up her gun and a single bullet being fired echoed through the corridors. Heero had squeezed the trigger, but so had Locke.

There was a clatter of a gun falling from one of the two people's hands and Locke smiled. Heero collapsed onto the floor, stunned and weakened as the bullet that Locke had shot punctured his right lung, making it hard for him to breathe. He coughed and blood spilled from his lips and dripped to the floor. Heero's vision swam and he could make out the blurry figure of Locke kicking his discarded gun away and walking away.

"I told you Wing Zero, your time has come to fall," Locke called back as Heero struggled to stay conscious. He reached behind, to his empty pack, and took out a small control box, the size of his hand. He pressed a single red button that was on the box and a slight rumbling started.

"Mission…accomplished," he whispered to no one in particular as the shockwave of energy and debris headed towards him.

***

Chaing felt some rumbling beneath his feet as he made his way through the crowded areas of the docking bays. He reached the shuttle and went in.

"Heero?" Chaing called out, and no one answered his call. _Damn, he must have gotten caught_, he thought to himself as he strapped in the pilot's seat.

"I can't go back, he knew the consequences," Chaing reminded himself as he saw multiple fireballs of energy and debris shoot out from various spots on the moon base. He throttled the shuttle and sped away from the base. Back where he was parts of the ceiling collapsed and Chaing glanced behind him to see the parts of the moon base blow up.

A part of him felt sad for the loss of a fellow pilot, but another said that they knew that one of the days, some of them were going to die. _Heero, may you rest in peace_, Chaing thought as he piloted the shuttle towards Nairobi Base.

***

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Chapter 4- Hidden Agent Program

Trowa felt something hard, cold, and very metal as he slowly woke up. _Where am I?_ He thought as he looked around. It was slightly dark, but a small torch or lamp, he couldn't decide, illuminated the prison he was in. Suddenly there was a click and he could make out in the gray light a door being opened. Two men came in bearing what looked like whips and each held a silencer gun.

"Get a move on scum," one of the two men said gruffly and they hauled him up. Trowa struggled against their vise-like grips when suddenly he heard the snap of a whip and pain flared up above his left eyebrow.

"You try to resist, and you'll just make yourself hurt even more," the other man said and Trowa saw a fist coming straight towards his temple, knocking him out.

When he woke up again, he saw that he was in a sparse room, only filled with some kinds of instruments of surgery. He tried to move his right arm, but found that it was latched down. He glanced around and saw that he was in a table-contraption of some sort.

"Don't struggle Trowa, you'll only make it worst," a voice he had not heard in a long time spoke up to his right and Trowa turned his head to the right and looked up to see Azure Williams, or better known to him as Hawk.

"Is the patient calm down, Hawk?" a male voice said from faraway and the snapping of a latex glow being put on echoed through the room.

"Almost Dr. Newman," Hawk replied as Trowa continued to struggle, "you don't get it do you, Eagle, you're about to become one of us, so stop struggling, it will be all right."

"Yeah, sure. I never thought you'd be the one to turncoat," Trowa said sarcastically wincing a bit as a grizzled old man in a white lab coat stuck a sharp needle into him.

"Times change Barton, I hope so do you," Hawk said and kissed him on the lips. Trowa began to feel very drowsy and tried to will himself not to fall unconscious. The last thing he saw before total blackness was Hawk's face smiling cruelly at him.

***

A figure crept slowly towards the room where Lucrezia Noin worked. He wore the rank insignia of a lieutenant and had the uniform of Preventer on. In his right hand, he held a small dagger with the royal enbelim of the former Sank Kingdom on it. He stopped at the door and opened it softly. Inside sat Noin with her back to him, the setting sun casting a long shadow.

"Commander Noin?" the lieutenant asked tentatively and Noin turned around surprised.

"Lieutenant Dlarit, you scared me. What can I do for you?" Noin asked smiling brightly.

Dlarit gave her a smile, which was deadly as a snake, "Commander, all you have to do is to die." Quicker than the eye could follow, Dlarit threw the dagger straight at her and it buried itself in her stomach.

"Wha…what is this?" Noin gasped, as she collapsed onto the floor, her blood spilling over her hands. She suddenly felt lightheaded and passed out.

Dlarit's lips curled up with satisfaction as he left her. He removed the glove that had been on his throwing hand and took out a lighter. The lighter lit up with a flick of his thumb and he poised the flame underneath the glove. The glove caught the flame and burned rapidly. Dlarit threw the burning glove into a nearby trashcan and went on his way.

"This is Nighthawk, mission complete," he said into comlink then switched frequencies, "activate Alpha group."

***

A young officer working at a terminal suddenly keeled over at her station.

"Gwen, you all right?" one of her fellow officers in the operation room asked, concerned for her.

Officer Gwen Kedya slowly lifted her head up, and glanced at the young man that had addressed her. "I'll be fine Ensign," she replied, her voice cold and hard as steel. Her eyes held an abnormal fierceness and almost seemed to compute information to an unknown source.

***

Locke Dabnerba smiled cruelly as she saw thirty little lights on her terminal light up like mini fireworks. _Program Hidden Agent has gone well, Dr. Rainer Newman is a genius_, she thought as she activated a hologram of a young man that was being dragged in from the upper decks of Lunar Colony. The image fuzzed a little, since it was transmitting from the Lunar Colony to her asteroid field base. The man was crying out in extreme protest and Locke laughed lightly as she saw her men club him and beat him. Finally the young man fell into a comatose state, and was silent. _With Wing Zero out of the picture, I will have a clear access to control Earth Sphere Alliance and the Colonies_, she thought as she glanced out into the endless blanket of stars. The window reflected her coal black hair which was put up into a bun, accenting her sharp green eyes with flecks of gold.

***

"Where's Commander Noin?" Duo asked as he entered the main operation room where Lucrezia Noin usually was.

"She said that she was in her office," one of the officers on duty replied to him then went back to work.

"Thanks," Duo yelled back as he left the room and headed towards Noin's office.

When he reached her office, he was surprised that the door was half opened. "Noin…" Duo started as he pushed the door opened and his jaw dropped when he saw her, laying in front of her desk, blood strewn everywhere. There was a dagger sticking from her stomach and she looked unconscious.

"I have to do something," Duo muttered as he entered the room, slightly shocked to see the leader of Preventer wounded and possibly dying. He reached down and grabbed hold of the dagger. Pulling with all his strength he managed to get it out, but with a sickening scraping sound.

Suddenly a gasp of alarm came from the door and Duo looked towards it to see Mariemaia standing at the door, her face, white as snow.

"You…killed…" Mariemaia started then screamed in horror at the top of her lungs.

Duo realized he had made a big mistake trying to ease Noin's blood flow. He dropped the dagger that was in his hand and looked straight at Mariemaia. "I didn't do it, it's not what you think," he protested to her. Then about four officers rushed in and Duo knew that he had been compromised.

"I saw him, I saw him. He killed Aunt Lucrezia," Mariemaia babbled as streams of tears fell down her face.

"I swear, you guys I didn't do it! I saw her lying down on the ground and wanted to stop her blood flow!" Duo protested, as he was bodily hauled up by two of the four men.

"Shut up, Maxwell. We know you Sweepers, always lying and stealing. You'll have to answer to a military court. But for now, we'll just see who's telling the truth," one of the officers said as he snapped binders to Duo's wrists. Another of the officers went over to Noin and checked her pulse.

"Get a medical team down here, she's still alive, and we need to save her," the officer that had checked her pulse yelled into his comlink.

"I'm telling you, it wasn't me!" Duo yelled angrily and made a move to escape them. He reeled suddenly as one of the burly men backhanded him hard to his face, sending him sprawling to the floor. _Aw, hell_, Duo cursed to himself as he felt weakened and they dragged him away from the scene of the crime.

***

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Chapter 5- With This Tear

Relena Peacecraft sat down on to the high-backed chair in a small briefing room her body numbed with shock. _I can't believe it…Heero's gone_, she thought to herself as she felt tears creep to the corners of her eyes. They threatened to spill over, but she managed to compose herself. _There will be time to mourn him later, you now have to deal with this new threat in the Colonies' backyard_, she reminded herself firmly.

"Relena, are you okay?" the concerned voice of her brother Zechs, rang through her ears.

Relena sniffed a bit then replied in a confident voice, "Yeah, I'll be fine. What we need to do now, is to send a search team to find where this Omicron Empire's base is. Chaing, you said that there wasn't that much security at the moon base, right?"

"Yeah. I checked the files and they said that the half of the materials were being transferred to the asteroid belt," Chaing replied, glancing at her.

"All right, thank you Chaing Wufei, you're dismissed," Relena said and the Chinese Gundam pilot left the room.

"Relena, it's okay, just let is all go," Zechs said as Relena stood up and leaned into his shoulder. Zechs hugged her awkwardly, not used to the contact as Relena cried softly.

He respected Heero Yuy, and even found him to be a useful ally, even though he was usually cold to him because of there past differences_. I just hope that my sister could handle herself_, he thought as he comforted her. Suddenly there was a swift knocking at the briefing room door and a young lieutenant burst in.

"Sir, Commander Noin has been injured!" the lieutenant said in a rush of breath and Zechs paled.

"Who? Who was the assailant?" he demanded as Relena stopped crying and looked at the lieutenant with horror.

"Duo Maxwell," the lieutenant replied and Zechs frowned with half anger, half confusion.

"How is Noin?" he asked, concerned for his second-in-command of Preventer.

"She's stable, and should in a few hours wake up," the lieutenant replied and Relena brushed past him.

"Zechs, I'm going to talk with the delegates from the Colonies. Inform me of Miss Noin's condition," Relena said, knowing that Zechs wanted to be alone when someone close to him was hurt.

Zechs nodded distractedly and pointed his index finger at the lieutenant, "What cell has Maxwell been put into?"

"I will take you there myself, Colonel Merquise," the lieutenant replied and Zechs followed him out of the briefing room.

"This is Flare, they've fallen for the bait. Preventer is on it's way to chaos," Officer Gwen Kedya spoke into a comlink from where she hid in the shadows, watching both officers walk away.

***

Quatre slowly awoke and internally groaned. He was again, stuck in a medical bed and in a state which he felt totally helpless and weak. _I have to stop getting myself injured_, he mentally reminded himself.

"You all right Quatre?" Iria's voice said above him and he faintly smiled at his sister.

"Yeah, just peachy," he said sarcastically then made a move to get up.

"You're still on my injured list, so no way are you moving," Iria said, irony laced all over her words.

"I feel fine, that was just an empathic burst that I've suffered. I had this before when I was battling Romefeller, and I handled it. Just…" Quatre huffed as he hopped off the bed and rounded towards the refresher station to change.

"You're in a good mood," Iria said sarcastically. She sighed, "Quatre, what's wrong with you? You're never like this."

"Some branches of the corporations are shipping gundanium and titanium alloy to the asteroid fields without my permission. God, they're making me mad!" Quatre spoke up from the station. He exited and faced Iria with angry blue eyes.

"Listen to me brother, some of the companies might rebel, but this on the alloys is highly irregular," Iria replied, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm sorry Iria for taking my anger out on you," Quatre apologized and stared at the ground. "Iria," he asked, tentatively," you and my sisters, can you guys take control of the corporation while I go to the asteroid field to check what's going on."

"If you're going I'm coming with you," a young voice spoke up from the door to Quatre's room and both turned to see Ione standing in a cross between a Maganac outfit and Preventer uniform.

"No, you're not going," Quatre insisted firmly, "this is for my own gain."

"Better check the news," Ione said and flicked on the small television set that was in his room.

"In news today, there was an explosion that destroyed half of the factory base on the Lunar Colony. Sources state that the person or persons who blew the factory is unknown. An investigation is going on. In other news, second-in-command of the Preventer Corps, Commander Lucrezia Noin was severely injured by an attack from an unknown assailant. Our wishes to her, on her speedy recovery," an anchorman spoke and Ione turned off the TV.

"There's more, Quatre, Heero's dead," Ione said and Quatre paled at the news.

"Heero's…dead?" he asked, not too sure if he heard correctly.

"It gets worst…do you still want to hear this?" Ione asked, slightly distressed to see Quatre look so crestfallen.

"Yeah, what could be worst," Quatre muttered the latter part under his breath.

"Trowa's reported missing about a few days ago and Duo's convicted of trying to kill Noin. And there's this group calling themselves Omicron Empire who looks like is out on domination," Ione said and Quatre's mood went even lower.

"I bet this has something to do with Colony 01's leader being assassinated," Quatre said then slammed a fist on a nearby table, making both Iria and Ione jump in surprise, "maybe in the asteroid field the Omicron Empire is hiding in there."

"All right, but be careful Quatre," Iria said, sighing and Quatre nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," he replied.

***

__

Chapter 6- My Mind

Trowa felt as if he was in a whirlwind of pain, memory lapses, and confusion. He kept seeing flashes of his past life as a soldier, all the missions he went on to and all the results of the missions.

**__**

Flash!

"How many charges do we have left?" thirteen-year-old Hawk said, tucking a strand of her golden blonde hair behind her left ear.

"About three more," fourteen-year-old Trowa replied, not glancing at the Icelandic girl. He concentrated on a radar screen that showed numerous green patches that were moving closer to their position.

"Falcon, this is Eagle, we've got bogies on the run, headed about six kilometers from us and coming in fast. I say about ten minutes before they arrive at our position," Trowa spoke over a small comlink that was connected to their three-person group leader.

"Never mind them! You have got to see what I've found!" Ralph Shumii's voice came back full of excitement. The burly sixteen-year-old was also code-named as Falcon. Trowa's eyebrows knitted together as he weighed the consequences.

"Eagle, let's go! The Maganac Corps coming! We've got to go!" Hawk said urgently and she threw the remaining bombs into the entrance of the pyramid that Falcon was in. Trowa ducked as she pressed the button that exploded the charges, sending shards of rock and sand everywhere.

"You idiot! You trapped Falcon!" Trowa hissed at her, and glanced up towards the entrance, but saw no way that there leader could have gotten out.

"Who cares about him, let's go," Hawk replied and Trowa didn't like the mischevious glint in her eyes. Suddenly he found himself wrapped in her embrace, her mouth over his. Trowa struggled and pushed her away, glaring at her bright green eyes.

"We are not leaving Falcon," he stated flatly sitting up and brushed sand from his commando uniform.

"Then I'll see you, later," Hawk replied and Trowa saw blackness as Hawk round-housed him.

****

Flash!

Trowa suddenly blinked open his eyes and winced as the harsh glare of a light shone down on his face. He tried to move an arm to shield the light, but found that he couldn't.

"What? What's going on?" Trowa croaked out as he struggled from his bonds.

"Don't worry, Barton, it'll be over soon, just relax," a deep voice said to his right and Trowa turned his head and saw a grizzled old man with spiky gray hair and a fat nose.

"Who are you?" Trowa asked, as he searched his brain to identify the man. He vaguely remembered who the person was, but like the rest of his fogged memories he had a hard time identifying anyone. He knew his name was Trowa Barton, but that was just about it.

"I am Dr. Rainer Newman. You had a terrible accident," the grizzled old man said and held up a picture to his eyes, "do you recognize this person?"

Trowa knew that he saw the blonde-haired, blue eyed young man before, but couldn't place it. _What's wrong with my memories?_ He thought to himself as he creased his forehead in an effort to remember the young man.

"Good," a soft voice said to his left and he turned a head to face the girl that was in his dream, but she looked a bit older.

"Hawk?" Trowa tried tentivily, not sure if his memory was holding him.

"Yes, you've got it right, Trowa," the Icelandic beauty said, giving him a dashing smile.

"All right, Mr. Barton, hold still for a second, this will hurt a bit," Dr. Newman said and Trowa suddenly opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. He felt as if someone had taken his brain and reworked it. Anger and despair poured into his senses and finally the pain was over.

"How do you feel?" Hawk asked him and Trowa blinked a few times.

"I need to destroy the Gundam pilots," he replied, not noticing the change in his voice. They were icy cold and hard as he narrowed his eyes.

***

Duo sat in his cell, his hands buried in his hair. He ran both hands through his brown hair and sighed.

"Hey, Maxwell, you've got a visitor," one of the guards on duty said gruffly and Duo didn't look up as the cell door opened then shut.

"Go away, I don't need your sympathy right this moment," he said, not looking at the person that came in.

"Well, I'm sorry Duo, but you're going to have to bear with me," Hildre's voice said and Duo glanced to his right to see the younger German girl looking slightly mad at him.

"I didn't do it, I swear Hildre, I didn't," Duo started, then faltered as he rubbed his eyes.

"I know," Hildre replied, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder and Duo glanced at her in surprise.

"Can you prove me innocent?" Duo asked, hoping that his partner could get him out of the situation he was stuck neck-deep in.

"Maybe. I went to the forensics department and they've identified the dagger as coming from the former Sank Kingdom, also there is another match of glove prints, but they haven't identified the glove yet," Hildre said and Duo sighed again.

"That's at least good news to my ears," Duo started but was cut off as the door to his cell opened again and the person he wanted to see the least stepped through.

"Duo Maxwell," Zechs started as Duo stood up from his bunk, holding his arm in front of Hildre to stop her from saying any nasty remarks she may have.

"Zechs, glad to see you," Duo said warily as he eyed the leader of Preventer Corps.

"You know, the consequences of assaulting and nearly killing a superior officer is to go to a military court and the sentence is death by spacing," Zechs stated and gauged the reaction on Duo's face.

"I know," Duo said solemnly and Hildre gave a small gasp of horror.

"But, you are allowed a fair trial," Zechs said and produced a folder from the inside of his jacket, "these are the results of the forensic tests, we may have a chance to save your skin at the trial."

Duo blinked in surprise as he couldn't believe what his ears where hearing. " We? As in you're helping me, in the trial?" he asked in wonderment.

"Got that damn straight," Zechs replied then sobered a bit, "Duo, there's something going on in Preventer, something that I don't know about. If we clear you, we'll need your skills to find out what's going on."

"You've got me all lined up," Duo replied, suddenly enthusiastic at the reality that he had a strong supporter.

"Don't get too excited…there's some news concerning Heero," Zechs started and Duo immediately frowned at the tone of Zechs' voice.

"He went on a mission by himself again," Duo stated narrowing his cobalt blue eyes.

"Heero's dead," Hildre spoke up quietly and Duo sat down on his bunk, dazed and shocked.

"No, he can't be, right?" Duo said, looking to Zechs to see if it was true, "I mean, he can't die, not after all we've been through."

"Something happened that disrupted the Lunar Mission, we don't know what, but Wufei's confirmed that Heero's dead," Zechs said and Duo bowed his head down, letting his yard-long braid fall from his left shoulder.

"He's dead…" Duo whispered, "Aw man, this is heavy."

"Try not to worry, we need to figure how to get you out of this mess," Hildre said, patting him on the shoulder, trying to comfort him.

***

__

Chapter 7- Emotionless Mask

Sierra paced around the asteroid base where she had returned after the successful mission on Colony 01. She had smiled when her leader had executed the Premiere of the Colony. _Tano, if you were only here to celebrate with me_, she thought as she glanced out into the endless blanket of stars on the base's huge fiber-glass-titanium windows.

"Attention all personnel, incoming transport, incoming transport. Report to stations, this is an unknown transport, it could be an enemy attack," a voice blared out through the communication systems wired through the base.

Sierra quickly got out her handgun and headed towards the docking bays. She wanted action and things have been winding down since she returned to the base.

"Hawk! Where are you going?" she asked, the blonde-haired woman who seemed intent on going towards a shuttle.

"Moon Base, there's something that I want to check out over there," Hawk replied and continued on.

"What's so good about moon base? All they have is junk and remaining pieces of a mobile suit factory. All our Orion mobile suits have been moved here," Sierra asked arrogance in her voice.

"There is someone over there in the remains that might be alive. If I go, we might still be able to convert him," Hawk replied then shut the hatch to a small shuttle.

Sierra shielded her eyes against the shine of the boosters powering up and launching the shuttle towards space. Suddenly she remembered about the unknown shuttle and continued on.

***

Relena composed features to a neutral expression. The general meeting of all the representatives of the Earth Sphere Alliance wasn't headed to a good start. There were accusations by the representative to others, saying that they had input spies in their organization and destroying their files and production.

"Attention, all! Please, hold your thoughts and we will address them one at a time!" Field Marshal Tragati yelled over the noise as he banged a gravel sharply on the podium he was standing behind.

"What is this concern about the Colonies ready to betray us?" one of the representatives shouted out as the room quieted down.

Relena recognized the person as the leader of the Southeast Asian Islands representative, Hikari Komosagi, a woman with an attitude just like Lady Une, when she was on her sadistic side. She never liked the older woman, and disliked her, because she usually criticized her in front of people and didn't even seem to care about it.

"The Colonies will not betray us," Relena said in a firm voice standing up and giving the older woman a hard glance.

"How should we know this? Colony 01's leader is already dead, the others might follow suit and rebel against our control," Hikari stated, and Relena heard the murmurs of others agreeing with her.

"Preventer will be able to stop that if it happens," another voice spoke up and Relena glanced at Quinn Nelson, the representative of the America States, surprised at the man who used to be so strong opposed to her, now backing her up.

"But, Preventer is in chaos. Everything is in chaos! Commander Lucrezia Noin is injured, by one of the people in Sweepers, who are from the Colonies! And there are spies lurking around from who knows where! Lunar Base has been bombed and I bet it was those colonists who did it. I tell you, people, the Colonies must not have too much freedom, they must be barred," Hikari said giving each of the fifty representatives in the room a piercing glance.

"That's enough. Ms. Komosagi, please sit down. You too, Miss Peacecraft and Mr. Nelson," Tragati interrupted them and Relena sat down, slightly annoyed at Komosagi. "We must try to contain the order among Earth and the Colonies. This is a very hard time for us; we are being tested to see if this peace will last. We must cooperate with each other and learn how to overcome obstacles like this. Now, we will try this again in two hours. Please do not make false accusations you cannot prove," Tragati said and hit the gravel on the podium to adjourn the meeting.

Relena sat back in her chair and sighed. The stinging comment Hikari gave her about the Lunar Base was deadly. She didn't want to think about Heero currently, but her mind kept nagging to her that something wasn't adding up.

"Relena, can I talk to you for a minute?" Tragati's voice said and Relena looked up to see the Field Marshall waving her over.

"What is it?" Relena asked, as she approached him.

"How bad is it? I mean be honest. How bad is Preventer suffering?" Tragati asked, giving her a tired look.

"It's bad, way bad. Milliardo is trying to clear Duo Maxwell's name, because there's something about Preventer inside that doesn't seem right. Miss Noin is in stable condition, but I guess she'll come out of that coma in about a couple of hours. Also we're down one Gundam pilot, Heero Yuy," Relena said, almost sobbing as she said his name. She wouldn't admit it, but she felt an attraction to the almost-suicidal Gundam pilot.

"It's okay, Relena, I'm sorry to discomfort you," Tragati said and Relena nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Relena lied. _Heero…_she thought as she felt a single tear fall from her left eye.

***

__

Chapter 8- Chasing Shadows

Chaing wandered down a slightly darkened hall in one of the lower levels of the Nairobi Preventer Base. Everything was in chaos he decided and he didn't like it. Duo was arrested, Heero was dead, Trowa had reported missing for several days, and Quatre was out of contact, saying that he was on some special leave of absence.

"Dammit! What the hell is going on! Nataku! I need your strength!" Chaing shouted into the empty hall, his voice echoing through the corridors. He slammed a fist against one of the granite walls and pain sprang from it, but he ignored it.

Suddenly he heard a sound of some rocks crumbling in the far distance and he tensed, ready for an attack. Then soft voices echoed through the corridor and Chaing decided to follow the voices. He stumbled upon a small group of about five people, huddled together. They looked as if they were in deep discussion.

"Who are you intruders?" Chaing demanded as he saw that they weren't wearing Preventer uniforms.

"Damn, I knew that this wasn't a good place," one of the five muttered and stepped into the dim light surround the long hall. "Leave now, Gundam pilot, and we will spare your life," the man said drawing a handgun out and clicking the safety off.

"Bad choice," Chaing replied and crouched down. He pivoted on his right hand and his left leg swept underneath the person holding the gun, toppling him to the ground. Chaing quickly leaned over the downed man and pressure pointed him on the neck, choking his air supply off.

"Stand up where I could see you," another of the five demanded and Chaing recognized the woman's voice as Officer Gwen Kedya.

"Lowly woman, you shoot me, and your friend here dies without a second thought," Chaing said, standing up and facing the four remaining members of the small group. He was aware that the man he had pressure pointed was gasping for air like a fish out of water.

"You fool! He can't die, Locke Dabnerba and the Omicron Empire won't let him," Gwen said glaring at him defiantly. She lowered her voice and said smugly, "He is already one of us."

"Locke Dabnerba, she is alive?" Chaing asked, and before he could knock the gun out of Officer Kedya's hands, the four AWOL soldiers ran down the hall with impossible speed even for a human. Chaing noted that they were headed towards the mobile suit hanger bays and smiled grimly. _My Nataku, we are going to stop this rebellion_, he thought as he followed them, headed towards his Altron and leaving behind the man still gasping for air.

***

Quatre set the shuttle on autopilot and sat back on the cockpit chair, closing his eyes. Conflicting emotions ran through his mind, one saying that something was definitely wrong with the whole situation, the other saying that he just needed to relax and let everything go.

"What's our ETA until we reach the asteroid field?" Ione's voice startled him out of his light doze.

"Huh? What? Oh," Quatre stuttered opening his eyes and blinking them rapidly to get sleep out. He looked at her and grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, sleeping on the job. Um, about one hour."

"Good," Ione said and turned away from him, placing a visor over her eyes. In both hands she held two joysticks with wires that connected to the visor.

"What's that?" Quatre asked, curious as to what the newest Maganac was doing.

"It's a simulation of a battle. Uncle Rashid gave it to me so I'd be prepared to defend you to my best abilities," Ione replied, her voice slightly strained as her hands moved the joystick lightning quick.

"Ione, you don't need to defend me, I can protect myself," Quatre said then realized he could have insulted her.

"You saying that my skills aren't adequate, Master Quatre?" Ione said, her voice angry as she gritted her teeth still focused on the simulation.

"No, no, not that. I'm just saying that your skills are fine, but I can use the practice to shoot back at whoever's firing on me during a mobile suit battle, and please, don't call me Master Quatre. I don't really like it when Rashid and the others do that, it makes me feel very uncomfortable," Quatre apologized, turning slightly red. He was glad that she couldn't see him through her visor.

"Apology accepted…Quatre. You're still the same since I've seen you around seven years ago," Ione said taking off the visor and giving him a grin.

"What? Seven years ago?" Quatre asked, puzzled.

"That's when you first joined us, and became our leader. Remember when you stopped Judas from betraying the Corps and you destroyed the attacking mobile suits when my Uncle Rashid was injured?" Ione asked, giving him a sideways glance.

Quatre narrowed his eyes in an attempt to remember. "Oh, yeah, now I remember. When I came from the shuttle, I saw you standing next to Abdul, almost like begging him to play with you. At that time I thought you were a total nut head," he said in a teasing voice.

"You what?!" Ione said, totally caught off guard by his comment.

"Never mind…just tell me when it's fifteen minutes before we get to our destination, I need to get some rest," Quatre said rising out of his chair and headed towards the back of the high-speed shuttle.

"It's about your empathic abilities, right?" Ione guessed, even though she knew she was right.

Quatre turned around in surprise, "How did you know?"

"Because I'm an empath too," Ione said gravely, "I'm not as strong as you are, but I can feel emotions of people who are close to me. Right now, you feel distressed, confused, and sad. I can only hazard a guess why. You feel distressed because of your corporation; confused because you don't know what's going on in Preventer and the Alliance; sad because of your friend Trowa being missing and Heero, the second-in-command of your Gundam team, is dead."

Quatre turned away from her, feeling tears creep up into his eyes. He didn't want to worry about Trowa, or Heero, but she had just said the words he didn't want to hear. "You forgot one emotion I feel," he whispered then left the cockpit quickly, not wanting to see her reaction.

Ione sighed and glanced at her combat simulation visor. "It's love isn't it Quatre? You're feeling something towards me," she whispered before putting the visor back on.

***

__

Chapter 9- Hero's Find

Hawk landed the shuttle on the barren Moon landscape. She looked around at the endless field of gray, occasionally punctuated with a half-collapsed structure of some sort. The bomb that the Gundam pilot Heero Yuy had done its job. It had totally destroyed the Lunar Base, rendering it uninhabitable once more. _Now, Locke told me that there might be survivors who are currently trying to get off the moon. If I find them then I can take them back for reprogramming and insert them into Earth, which thinks that everyone on the Lunar Base is dead, so this makes the plan perfect_, she thought as she walked out of the shuttle, her own breathing could be heard through her ears as she wore a helmet.

"Help me," a voice whispered from one of the wreckage piles and she lifted a slab, showing a helmeted face that was slightly cracked.

"Who are you, you look very familiar," Hawk demanded as she pulled the young woman out.

"My name is…I do not know what my name is," the young Asian woman with long raven black hair and sharp almond shaped silver eyes said, coughing a bit.

"It's okay, we'll get back to the ship," Hawk said and rescue-carried her back to her shuttle and settled her on a bunk. "Stay here, I'll be back," she instructed her and went back out.

Hawk wandered the barren landscape for a few minutes when she spotted something sprawled in the middle of two small craters. She checked the person's pulse and found that it was still alive, but barely. Hawk rescue-carried the person back to the shuttle.

"Miss, do you mind that I leave this person in your care until we get back to the asteroid base?" Hawk asked the Asian lady and she nodded.

"My memory is failing me…" the Asian lady whispered as Hawk turned towards the cockpit and a few minutes later, the shuttle took off.

***

Duo sat back on a wooden chair next to Hildre and Zechs. On the other side of the room, sat three prosecutors who gave dark glares at Duo and Hildre.

"Attention, order in the court," the judge said, tapping a small gravel lightly on the stand he was sitting behind. The courtroom quieted down except for the whirling sound of cameras and video recorders taping the trial away.

"This is Day One of the _Maxwell Preventer Case_. The summarizer, you have the stand," another of the three judges said and Duo saw a thin, pale man step up to a microphone situated in the middle of the room.

"Your Honors, the case presented here is in conclusion of the attempted assassination of Commander Lucrezia Noin, by the accused, Duo Maxwell. May we start the trial," the thin man said and sat back down.

"The Prosecution has the stand," the other of the three judges said and tapped the gravel on the podium.

"Zechs, who are the three military judges?" Duo whispered to the Colonel.

"General Atari, Admiral Peyote, and Admiral Ishin," Zechs whispered back, then narrowed his eyes as he saw the main prosecutor walk up to stand next to the box in which a witness had to sit in, "that's Major Adams, possibly the worst nightmare in a trial."

"The Prosecution will now call on Ensign Quentin," Adams said his nasal voice sounding like a whining train.

Duo smiled grimly as he knew that this was an internal battle, in which no mobile suits or Gundams were used to fight it. His life was on stake, and he feverently hoped that Zechs Merquise could find a way out for him.

***

Lucrezia Noin felt as if her limbs where in a limbo and she felt stiff. _What's going on?_ She wondered as she tried to move her arms, but found that they wouldn't respond to her commands. _Let me out of this prison!_ She thought as she tried frantically to move.

"I think, she's coming out of it," she heard a faraway voice say and she cracked open her eyes.

The images she saw were blurry, but she blinked a few times and they became clear. A doctor was leaning over her, checking all her vital systems, and looking at the monitor for readings on her blood pressure and heart beat. Noin worked her mouth for a second, trying to get feeling back into it and she tentatively spoke.

"What happened?" Noin asked, feeling moisture return to her mouth and the fuzzy feeling she had in her mouth was gone.

"There was an attempt on your life, by Duo Maxwell," the doctor said and Noin narrowed her eyes, "how do you feel?"

"I feel fine…wait, Duo Maxwell tried to kill me?" Noin asked, not believing what she heard.

"Yes, Aunt Lucrezia, I saw him pull the knife out of you," Mariemaia spoke up from her bedside, startling her.

"You saw him?" Noin asked in wonderment. She shook her head as she sat up.

"Commander Noin, you shouldn't be up," the doctor protested but Noin waved him away.

"Marie, did you see him try to kill me?" Noin asked the eleven-year-old girl her tone of voice saying that she expected a truthful answer.

"No, but I did see him take the knife out of you, so I assumed that he had stabbed you," Mariemaia said ruefully, then glanced down.

"That's not true…" Noin whispered as she tried remember the face of the person that stabbed her in the cobwebs of her memory.

"Commander, what do you mean?" the doctor asked, puzzled.

Noin narrowed her eyes as she remembered the person that stabbed her, "It was Lieutenant Dlarit…he was the one who stabbed me."

"You sure? I mean, everyone who is at the trial are saying that Duo Maxwell did it," Mariemaia inputted and Noin looked at her shocked.

"I have to get to the court room. Duo's innocent," Noin stated and made a move to get out of bed.

"Aunt Lucrezia, don't move, you're still injured," Mariemaia insisted, trying to help her.

"I highly suggest, Commander Noin, that you do not move for the time being. Your wounds are still in the process of healing," the doctor said glaring at his patient through rimmed glasses.

"But, they're going to execute Duo. Especially Zechs, he'll be furious at Duo," Noin pleaded with them.

"Uh, Aunt Lucrezia, Uncle Zechs is on the defendant," Mariemaia said, looking at her sheepishly as she played with a strand of her shoulder length hair.

"What?" Noin said sharply glancing at Kushrenada. She stood up from the bed and grabbed hold of the side, steadying herself. "The more reason to prove that Duo's innocent. Doctor, you can either help me, hinder me, or just get out of the way," Noin said angrily and the doctor looked nervous.

"Okay, okay, I'll get you a cane, and have two soldiers escort you to the trial. Maybe you can prove that Maxwell is innocent," the doctor said backing away and left the room in a hurry.

"Duo is innocent, he wouldn't hurt me. All we need to do is find Dlarit, he's the one who tried to kill me," Noin said and Mariemaia nodded.

***

__

Chapter 10- Trial by Fire

Chaing throttle his Altron, feeling the sense of battle return to him as he pursued the four Taurus mobile suits that we on a frantic race towards outer space.

"You won't get away that easily!" Chaing said over his communications system and activated his double trident; it's green color flashing with pure energy. He put on more speed and broke away from the atmosphere of the earth.

"You will die where you stand Gundam pilot!" Kedya shouted back, and Chaing narrowed his eyes. "Feel the wrath of our newest mobile suit, the Orion," Kedya said smugly.

Chaing ducked as a black-blue dark mobile suit whizzed over head, and turned around to face the new challenge. He noted that it had the same design as the Vayeate, but the hull of the mobile suit looked like a Taurus mobile suit and the prototype battleship _Galaxia_. The mysterious pilot in the Orion drew out a blue beam saber and charged at him. Chaing blocked the pilot's blows and twirled his trident in a full circle before bringing it down on the Orion. He gritted his teeth as the pilot held onto the blade, mere inches away from its face.

"Who are you, pilot of the Orion. No one has been able to do that," Chaing asked breaking away as he throttled back a bit.

"The one who will destroy all Gundam pilots," a very familiar voice came back, but laced with anger and coldness.

"Trowa…" Chaing whispered then narrowed his eyes in anger. "Trowa you fool! I will destroy you! You have betrayed us Gundam pilots and you will not live to see the next day!" Chaing said angrily and shot one of his dragon fangs at the Orion.

"Mistake one, Wufei Chaing, you let your emotions get the best of you," Trowa's emotionless voice came back.

Chaing's eyes widened as he saw Trowa fire a beam cannon at him. He was pressed against the seat of his Gundam as the beam cannon fried his systems, leaving him crackling in space. When the onslaught stopped, Chaing saw Trowa shooting away.

"You traitor! Come back and fight me!" Chaing shouted to Trowa. The Orion turned back to face him.

"I will destroy you, but you will survive for now," Trowa's voice came back and Chaing slammed a fist down on his control boards.

"Damn you!" Chaing shouted as Trowa sped away. Never in his life had he felt so humiliated.

***

Duo buried his head in his arms. The trial wasn't going good. Zechs had given a shot at defending him, but instead was shot down by the Prosecution. _Man, this is worst than piloting Deathscythe Hell in battle. Mobile suits are not shooting me down; I'm being shot down by words_, Duo thought wiry as he glanced up to the judges who were calling for order in the courtroom.

"Order in the court!" Admiral Peyote said slamming the gravel hard on the stand and the room slowly quieted down.

"Thank you. We will--" General Atari started but cut off as the door to the room opened, and a very pale looking, but alive and healthy Commander Lucrezia Noin stepped in.

"I'm sorry for the interruption, but I may have some information that might shed some light on this trial," Noin said, and smiled weakly.

Duo glanced at Zechs and saw his face light up as Noin hobbled towards the front of the courtroom, drawing gasps of surprise and wonderment from the various reporters and journalists in the room.

***

Noin smiled weakly as she still felt dizzy while making her way up to the stand. She sat down in the box and rested her head on her right hand, the dizziness momentarily overwhelming her senses.

"Commander Noin, do you feel strong enough to proceed with the trial?" the concerned voice of General Atari interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes," Noin said firmly as she looked up and gave Zechs a small smile.

"Could you tell us, ah, what happened?" Major Adams said, slightly nervous.

"For a fact, I know that Duo Maxwell is innocent," Noin stated looking at the various people her eyes hard and truthful.

"If he isn't the person, then tell us who is?" Adams said speculatively, rubbing his cleft chin.

"It's Lieutenant Ron Dlarit. He came to my office with the intention of who knows what, but threw the dagger with deadly accuracy at me. I passed out a few seconds later, and I remember regaining consciousness to see Duo try to take the knife out of me, but then from the blood loss, I guess, I passed out again," Noin explained and noticed that many of the reporters were nodding in agreement and General Atari was looking at her with careful eyes.

***

Duo smiled fully as he knew that Noin's words were the ones that proved him innocent. He noticed out of the corner of his eye a figure drawing a gun out and shifting it to point at Noin.

"Noin, watch out!" Duo shouted as he leaped out of his chair and towards the man that had the gun drawn out. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

He ran towards the man and tackled him to the ground just as he fired the gun. Duo felt the bullet grazed him on the right arm and suddenly everything speeded up. He glanced at the man and saw his eyes flash as if computing something. Suddenly he felt his air supply being cut off as the person gripped his neck. Duo reached with his hands and held his neck.

"The Omicron Empire will live, so will Locke Dabnerba," the man said and Duo presumed it was Lieutenant Dlarit.

"Well…" Duo struggled against the vise-like grip; "The God of Death will prevail." His left index finger found a pressure point and he pressed it. Dlarit suddenly fell over, releasing his grip, and Duo stepped away, watching him convulse in his last moments of death. Finally Dlarit stopped, and his eyes were lifeless and stared up into nothing.

He suddenly felt a pair of hands grab on to him and drag him away from the body as a crowd of reporters crowded around it, flashing pictures.

"Duo, you all right?" Hildre asked, and Duo numbly nodded.

"Yeah," he said breathless and winced as Hildre touched his upper arm where the bullet had grazed it.

"Don't worry, we'll get you patched up," Hildre said and placed a quick kiss on his cheek. Duo was surprised at the gesture and looked at Hildre in surprise, as she blushed a bit.

"Did he say anything before he died?" Zechs' deep voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah, I think Locke's still alive," Duo said and noted the worried looks on Zechs', Noin's and Hildre's faces.

***

__

Chapter 11- Brave Eyes

Quatre glanced sullenly at a group picture that was slightly rumpled, of all the Gundam pilots, Preventer, the Sweepers, and Relena. He placed a thumb over Heero's face and realized that they weren't invincible, they were just human, mortals. _One of us is already gone, who is next?_ He thought to himself as he folded up the picture and placed it in his pocket. There was a soft knocking and the door rose up to admit Ione.

"We're reaching the asteroid field in about fifteen minutes," Ione said and Quatre nodded.

"I'll be there in a few seconds," Quatre said and waved her away.

"Come on Quatre, what's wrong?" Ione persisted coming over to him, the tone of her voice indicated that she expected an answer.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong," Quatre said hesitantly and got up abruptly and brushed past her. He sat down in the pilot seat and glared out into space, his blue eyes seemed to be chiseled from stone.

"Fine, be that way," Ione muttered to herself as she sat in the co-pilot's seat which was next to his. She glanced at the radar then outside, "Approaching the first asteroid, things are gonna get rough past this."

Quatre gripped the shuttle's controls as if his life depended on it. _I shouldn't have been so mean to her, I mean, I'm never like this_, he thought to himself as he slackened the grip on the controls. He glanced pensively at her and saw a small smile quirk on her Arabic features.

"Ione…I-" Quatre started.

"Don't worry, you're forgiven," Ione said flashing him a grin then sobered as she yelled, "Quatre! Asteroid! Get moving!"

Quatre immediately focused on the task and swerved the shuttle left, right, up, down trying to avoid hitting an asteroid that could have pasted them flat. Suddenly the asteroids cleared up and Quatre's jaw dropped open at the sight of a huge triangular shaped ship, floating in the middle of the asteroid field.

"Damn, what the hell is that?" Ione breathed her deep blue eyes taking in the sight. Quatre narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Suddenly there was a crackling then a female voice came over, "Unidentified shuttle, please state your reason for being here. Identify yourselves."

Quatre was about to reply but Ione beat him to it, "This is Ione Kurama, part of the Maganac Corps. We are sent by Master Quatre Winner to investigate shipments that seemed to be headed towards your area. Do you know of such shipments?" Ione put a finger to her lips and Quatre nodded, recognizing the signal that he was too well known and if they knew that he was on board, things would get ugly.

"Maganac shuttle, we do not know of such shipments, you've got the wrong people," the voice came back after a moments pause.

"Control, please identify yourself. And may we stop by, because our shuttle is almost out of fuel and we need just enough to head back to the Colonies," Ione asked giving Quatre a knowing look.

"This is Sierra Comino, you're request is accepted. Direct your shuttle to Bay 15," Sierra's voice came back and Quatre sat back, stunned at the announcement.

"Roger that order," Ione replied and cut the connection. She looked at Quatre, giving him a sideways glance. "What's with you?" she asked.

"Sierra Comino…no, could she be related…"Quatre whispered, trailing off.

"Eh, little help here?" Ione said scratching the back of her head in confusion.

"It's a long story. If we get out of here alive, I'll tell you someday," Quatre said and gunned the throttle on the small shuttle. In his heart, he hoped that this Sierra Comino was no relation to Tano. He didn't want to repeat the incident that happened a year ago.

***

Trowa leaped out of his Orion mobile suit and lightly touched the ground because of the lessened gravity the giant battleship had. Something in his mind kept nagging him, but he tried to ignore it. He glanced at the pristine Gundam that towered over the small Orion mobile suit and felt something in his mind stir. He remembered that Hawk had told him that they found Gundam Wing Zero in the asteroid fields and had taken it to the base for examination of the Zero System it had.

"So, how did you fare with the Orion?" Sierra's voice said behind him, startling him slightly.

"The system is in perfect working order, though it can still have more installments of guns and missiles," Trowa replied in a cold voice. _Wait, what am I saying? Gattling guns and missiles? What's going on?_ He thought as a flash of a dark blue-green arm was raised and bullets came pouring out of the double gattling gun it had.

"That's okay. We'll get right on to it. Right now, Dabnerba wants you to go to the shuttle that just came in and take the people inside it hostage. It looks like Quatre Winner found out about our little plan and sent his Maganacs," Sierra said and Trowa nodded.

He floated towards the docking bays and saw a sleek shuttle that looked a lot like a bird. Suddenly he doubled over in pain as a flash of memory rushed at his senses. Through his closed eyes he saw a yellow energy blast headed towards him then someone calling his name desperately.

"Ah, what is wrong with me?" Trowa muttered as he clutched his head, "what are all these flashes?" Suddenly he straightened and his eyes became cold and calculating again. He walked towards the shuttle, overrode the code for it's doors and entered it, drawing his gun out.

"Quatre Winner, Gundam pilot of the Sandrock Kai, surrender now," Trowa said in an icy voice as he saw the blonde haired man stare at him in surprise.

"Trowa…what…" Quatre started as he saw the gun pointed at his chest, steady and not wavering as Trowa glared at him through his green left visible eye.

***

Hawk stood in front of Locke Dabnerba, carefully keeping her gaze fixated above the white wall that was behind her desk.

"So you're telling me that my clone is alive, but lost her memory? I want her to be sedated and placed in cryogenic state. If I die, then I can still come back," Locke said, rising up and walking around the desk to face the Icelandic woman.

"Yes ma'am. Also, you won't believe what I found," Hawk exclaimed then narrowed her eyes as Locke glared at her.

"Please enlighten me," Locke drawled in a sarcastic voice. "Listen to me Williams. You may control the Hidden Agent program, but don't forget what your debt is to me," Locke said in a dangerous tone. "Now," she continued in a more pleasant voice, "what do you want me to see?"

"Right this way, ma'am. Dr. Newman is preparing to implant the patient with one of the nano probes," Hawk said and gestured for her to follow.

***

__

Chapter 12- Severed Dreams

Relena slammed the door closed to her office, making the two occupants in the room who was waiting for her, jump in surprise.

"Relena, are you all right?" Zechs asked his sister, watching her pace around like a caged animal.

"All right? What do you think, Milliardo?!" Relena exclaimed shouting at him then lowered her voice in an angry tone, "the Alliance is in chaos, and no one trusts the Colonies anymore. Further more, you tell me that there is this faction called the Omicron Empire, who is led by none other than Locke Dabnerba who is back from the dead, I don't know how, and is starting to cause revolts and utterly chaos though out the Earth Sphere Alliance. Now you tell me what's the hell is going on!"

Zechs stared at his sister for a long moment, surprised that her calm composed exterior was falling apart, which wasn't normal for her. "Relena, you have to keep it together. You're the link that the Colonies have, and you can't back out now."

"Relena, your brother's right," Noin agreed and Relena turned around to face the second-in-command of Preventer, surprised that she was up.

"Noin?" Relena said in disbelief, "shouldn't you be resting?"

"Oh, I've rested enough, Miss Relena. You don't need to worry about me," Noin said giving her a smile.

"Relena, the reason we came to talk to you is that, the rest of the Gundam pilots and us are headed towards the asteroid fields to see if the rumors of Locke's forces are situated there. I want you to keep everything stable here, and Lady Une will help you," Zechs interjected and Relena looked shocked.

"But, Milliardo…" Relena started then narrowed her blue eyes, "you're going to fight again aren't you brother." She turned away from them and glanced out of the window that showed the plains landscape of Nairobi Base. "You're going to fight like Heero did," she whispered and felt a single tear slide down her face and plop onto the windowsill.

"Yes, I am. If Dabnerba is back, we have to stop her," Zechs said coming around towards her. He hugged her and placed a brotherly kiss on her head. "Relena, I know that you loved Heero, but he will be missed by all," Zechs whispered into her ear then released her and left her office.

"Miss Relena, please take care of yourself," Noin added and started towards the door.

"Noin," Relena said abruptly and Noin turned back around. "Take care of my brother, and please keep him safe," she said and Noin smiled.

"Will do, Miss Relena," Noin replied and left.

***

Duo was glad that his name was cleared. He glanced at the empty glass of non-alcoholic wine that he had ordered. He smiled to himself as he remembered that Quatre had got him to drink non-alcoholic wine during their victory celebration in defeating the White Fang around five years ago. Heero was the real victor of the celebration, but he had opted not to attend and instead went to repair his Gundam. Now, Duo didn't know where the Wing Zero was, but it wasn't on the base. _And now, Heero's gone too_, Duo thought darkly as he set the glass down on the table.

"Thinking again, Duo?" Howard's voice interrupted his thoughts as he and Hildre sat in the table Duo was sitting in.

"What? What's the matter with thinking?" Duo said ignorantly as he leaned back in his chair.

"Nothing, but Zechs says you've got a mission to destroy Locke Dabnerba and the Omicron Empire," Hildre said twirling her straw in a pinkish drink that looked like paste.

"Yeah, kinda sucks to know that someone you supposedly killed is back from the dead and rearing it's ugly head again. Especially Locke's. She might be pretty and all, but man, she's as annoying as Relena when pursuing Heero," Duo commented and received a whack in the head by Hildre.

"Hey! Relena's not as low as her!" Hildre said defending the Vice Foreign Minister.

"Okay, okay, I'm just kidding…sheesh," Duo said, trying to block Hildre's attacks. Suddenly a shadow was casted over the table and Duo looked up to see Chaing, his face expressionless.

"Let's go, Zechs' orders," Chaing said and Duo nodded grimly.

"I'll see you guys later," Duo called as he rose up.

"Wait, Duo," Hildre said and Duo stopped and turned around. He was totally caught off guard when Hildre kissed him on the lips. He glanced at her, his eyes full of shock and he looked dazed.

"Come on, lover boy," Chaing said and dragged him out.

***

Quatre raised his arms up and narrowed his eyes. He saw something change in Trowa and he didn't like it at all.

"Trowa? What's going on?" Quatre probed, confused.

"He has the mission of eliminating all of you Gundam pilots. Welcome Quatre Winner, never thought that I'd see you again," Sierra spoke up as he and Ione descended the ramp of the shuttle.

"So you are alive after all these times," Quatre said as they were herded away from the shuttle and deeper into base, "what did you do to Trowa?"

"Oh, he's just one of us right now. Soon, you and this young Maganac will be too," Sierra said, and Quatre frowned.

"Listen honey, I don't know what you're talking about, but no one's gonna change us into whatever he is…a mindless drone," Ione said and Quatre saw Sierra backhand her sharply, cutting her lip.

"Hey! Stop it!" Quatre said and made a move to help Ione up, but something dug into his neck, near his jaw.

"I wouldn't move a muscle, if I were you Gundam pilot," Trowa's soft voice whispered into his ear and Quatre felt the gun dig deeper into his neck. He glared at Trowa through the corner of his eyes.

"Take them to Lab room two so Dr. Newman can start the procedure," Sierra instructed and Quatre saw Trowa nod, "Lab room one is already filled."

"No one's gonna convert us," he heard Ione mutter as they were led away.

***

Dr. Newman glanced at the patient that was in his Lab room One. _This one is a strong one, very resistant to the probes_, he thought as he looked at the monitors and recorded the data that it gave off.

"How is the patient?" Locke's voice interrupted his thoughts and he spun around to face the leader of the Omicron Empire.

"Miss Dabnerba! I'm sorry, I didn't see you," Dr. Newman apologized then cleared his throat, "uh, you can see for yourself, that the patient is very resistant to the probes. We might have to create a new one that can break the mind of the patient and finally be able to control the patient."

"Yes…I see," Locke said as she looked over the unconscious form of the patient. She turned back to face Hawk and Dr. Newman smiling sadistically. "Hawk, you have done well. Dr. Newman, make sure the patient, at all costs, does not escape or it will be your head," she said and left abruptly, Hawk trailing her.

__

Sheesh…oh boy…this is going to be hard, Dr. Newman thought as he rubbed his chest, feeling a bad case of heartburn rise up. He took out a pill and managed to swallow it, and the pressure in his chest eased a bit.

***

__

Chapter 13- Battle Point Epsilon

Zechs sat in his cross mobile suit and Gundam, the Tallgeese III, the thrusters on the mobile suit shooting him towards the asteroid belt. Technically, it was made out of titanium alloy, but it had the stability and resistance of a Gundam and it had the long range attacks of his original Tallgeese and the short range attacks of his former Gundam, Epyon. Epyon had been destroyed soon after defeating Jennifer Kushrenada, it's systems outdated and were on the verge of completely exploding if he used the Zero System installed in it.

"All right, we're expecting resistance forming around here, so be on the look out," Noin's authoritative voice came over and Zechs hid a small smile. He had planned to ask her to marry him one of these days, but he never got the courage to tell her.

Suddenly a small beeping from one of his monitors made him glance at it. "Looks like the resistance is here," he stated and powered up his heat whip, which hung from his left hand, where his shield was.

"This is the Omicron Empire forces. Surrender now, or face the consequences," the voice of Officer Kedya came over.

"You think we would surrender?" Duo's voice replied and Zechs raised an eyebrow at the remark. The American Gundam pilot was always sarcastic, but in a different way.

"I don't think that your mobile suits and Gundams are good enough to defeat the Orions we have created," Kedya's cold voice came back.

"We'll see about that," Zechs said curtly and fired his mega beam cannon at a group of Orions. He had expected that they explode like the Leos and Aries, but they appeared without a single scratch mark on them.

"Hey, not even a single scratch…what the hell?" Duo wondered out loud.

"Time to get personal…Orion mobile suits, attack!" Kedya yelled and Zechs narrowed his eyes. Things were going to get tough.

***

__

He looked deep into the eyes of a blond-brown haired young lady, around his age, wearing a pretty royal blue dress adorned with a single pearl necklace. Her eyes held an amount of fear and he realized that he was holding a handgun pointed at her chest, his finger on the trigger ready to end her life…

"I will…I will…I will…I will survive!" he muttered to himself as he tried to find a lock on the impossible falling target in front of him. He could feel the heat of his Gundam heat up underneath the pressure of the atmosphere, but he had to survive to see Relena Peacecraft…

He also felt one of her knees dig into his lower back, preventing him from using his legs to launch a counter attack. He tried to twist his head to the side to look at her, but felt that her grip was like an iron bar around his neck.

"You are a good adversary I dare say Wing Zero, but not that good," Locke's voice breathed into his ear, making some of his hairs on the back of his neck stand up, "any last words you would like me to pass on to Relena Peacecraft before I kill her?"…

It was an endless cycle, rolling through his mind. Occasional flashes followed by intense pain, but the training put through by Dr. J, helped him resist it. He saw a red field, full of blood and explosions of those he killed, and those he weren't supposed to kill like Noventa, Septem, and all the Alliance leaders. Suddenly the face of a young girl appeared before his inner vision.

__

"Here you go, mister…here's a flower for you," the young girl said and he took it, glancing at her with puzzled eyes.

"Why did you give it to me?" he asked her, looking at her then at her cute little puppy that seemed to shine brightly with cheerfulness and happiness.

"You seemed sad, so I will cheer you up," the little girl replied then scampered off with her dog dragging her away…

He twisted and turned as the pain continued and saw another flash of an image, this one his first mistake…

__

He smiled with satisfaction at his mission complete. All the mobile suits had been destroyed. Suddenly an explosion caused him to look up. He saw a single Leo mobile suit tip backwards into a housing complex. He looked on with horrified eyes and when the explosion died down he ran towards the downed complex. Amongst the rubbles, he found the little girl's puppy, dead and lifeless. He gripped the flower the young girl had given him and closed his eyes in anger and despair. There was nothing he could have done…there wasn't supposed to be civilian casualties…

Heero Yuy woke up with a start. Immediately he felt his chest, looking for any signs of a bullet that entered him. He felt nothing except for a little hole in his dark green shirt, which the bullet had punctured it. _I'm supposed to be dead_, Heero thought to himself as he looked around. He was in a sparse room, only filled with instruments of some sort of operation. He was surprised that nothing was holding him down, not even a single guard was there. Suddenly the door to the room hissed open and Heero narrowed his Prussian blue eyes as Locke Dabnerba stepped through.

"Looks like you've changed," Heero commented sarcastically as he sat up from the table he was laying on.

"Heero Yuy, who would have ever thought that you'd survive an explosion and a bullet wound that should have killed you," Locke said, walking around him, staring at him with an animalistic ferocity.

Heero kept a steady gaze on her, watching her carefully for any signs of an attack. "What do you plan to do?" Heero asked coldly.

"Well, Dr. Newman said that your mind was very resistant to the nano probes we've tried to put into you, so maybe you won't be when you see another get infected by it," Locke replied then snapped her fingers and four guards rushed in, guns drawn.

Heero made a move to escape, but felt suddenly weak and his muscles seemed not to respond properly. He glared at Locke as she laughed lightly. "You know, that's gonna get annoying," he said sarcastically at her.

"Wing Zero, how foolish you could be. You know that we don't want you to escape. Right now, you only have the strength to walk," Locke said and pointed her finger at a guard and then towards Heero.

Two guards hauled him to his feet and one dug a gun into his back. "Move it," the one holding the gun to him said gruffly. Heero gave a dark look at Locke before walking, and they herded him out the room.

***

__

Chapter 14- Depths of the Mind

Quatre felt totally helpless as he was led to a wicked and crude looking chair that had a long arm extended above it and a circular disk hung off the end of the arm. They had already injected him with something he did not know what it was.

"Let him go!" Ione yelled as she struggled against two guards that held her slightly away from the chair. Trowa stood next to her, his expression blank and unemotional. Quatre felt himself hauled up into the chair and was strapped in.

"What do you want with us?" he asked as heard a whining of a machine being started. He glanced pleadingly at Trowa, hoping that he could reach his friend, but found that his gaze was still cold.

He saw Sierra smile smugly at him. "Oh, just change you for the better," she said and Quatre saw her move a small stick on a control board.

Suddenly his mind was assaulted with pain coming from jolts of electricity and some form of electric jolt that seemed to cramp up his nerves and muscles. He cried out in pain as the electric jolt intensified and his eyes opened wide as he saw on the small circular disk in front of him flashes of images.

"It doesn't feel good, does it, Winner," Sierra said as Quatre felt the pain lessen. He found himself breathing hard, and his head hurt as if Heero was self-destructing all over again.

He found that his throat was raw from screaming and he cleared it, "What…what are you trying to…accomplish. Tano…"

"Tano did nothing! You killed him for no reason!" Sierra cut him off and Quatre felt his mind assaulted again, but this time at a higher rate.

He saw out of the corner of his pain filled eyes that Ione was struggling, trying to repel his empathic waves of pain. He had no control of his mind and saw more images flash on the small disk.

"I know you, Winner, you're an empath, and you have mind barriers, so these little nano probes in your mind are designed to eat away your defenses. Once they've completed their jobs, you _will_ be one of us," Quatre heard Locke Dabnerba's voice come over an intercom system.

"Like…hell I will," Quatre managed to get out through clenched teeth. He opened his mouth to scream as another wave of pain assaulted his mind, but no sound came out. Instead he felt a big empathic wave of pain reach out from his mind before he saw blackness.

***

Trowa felt something in his mind awaken as he watched Quatre suffer in the specially designed chair that was for empathic people. He glanced over to Sierra who looked just about ready to explode with a sadistic happiness. Suddenly his he felt his mind being twisted inside and out as Quatre's pain overran his senses. He stiffened then felt his anger and violent nature pour out of him and he blinked his eyes a few times. Flashes of memory returned to him and he doubled over with pain.

**__**

Flash!

"My name is Quatre Raberba Winner, what's yours?"

"Trowa, you're not off to fight again are you?" "I will protect you, my sister."

"He's quite the guy."

"I do not have a name, call me No-name if you like."

"Mariemaia Kushrenada, Barton's daughter…she is the one causing this."

"Space is for lonely hearts…not for the evil ones."

****

Flash!

He held up his hands as if seeing them for the first time and realized that he had full control of his mind again, before his aggressive nature took over.

"Trowa Barton, are you all right?" Hawk's voice came over and Trowa looked around. He saw people picking themselves off the ground, some of them clutching their heads and glanced over to Quatre. The machine had stopped, but the Arabic young man had fallen unconscious.

"Yes…yes I'm fine," Trowa replied hesitantly, not too sure of his own voice. He realized that he needed to do something and quick. He motioned to two of the guards who were holding Ione and said, "Let her go, maybe she can convince him to join our ranks. I'll take her into my custody."

The two guards obeyed and Trowa grabbed Ione roughly by an arm and with lightning quick fingers, took a gun from one of the guards' pouches and handed it to her. "I assume you can shoot," he whispered into her ear as he led her towards Quatre.

"Eagle, what are you doing?" Hawk's voice came over the intercom again and Trowa turned around to face where his former comrade was in an operation room high above the chamber.

"What I should have done long ago," Trowa replied and whipped out his gun and shot two guards. He ducked as they returned fire and dove onto the ground towards a machine gun that was lying near a fallen guard. Trowa flipped at the last second and in mid-air, holstered his gun and when he landed his fingers picked up the handle of the machine gun.

He stood firmly and sprayed the chamber full of bullets, being careful to avoid Ione and Quatre. He smiled grimly as soldiers fell onto one another and then stopped shooting. The chamber held a deathly silence and Trowa shouldered his machine gun. He ran over to where Ione was trying to free Quatre of his binds.

"They're magnetically sealed, I don't know how to crack them," Ione said as she glanced at the chamber's door worriedly.

Trowa went to the control board and flipped a body that was draped over it onto the ground. He punched a few numbers and the bonds cracked open. He glanced over to Ione and saw her hand glowing as she placed it on Quatre's forehead. _She's an empath too_, he realized as Quatre began to stir.

"Quatre, can you stand, we need to get out of here," Trowa said, lifting him up in a rescue-carry style.

"Yeah…I guess," he heard him reply weakly, "you're okay?"

"Thanks for getting rid of those probes, my friend," Trowa replied.

"Trowa, you know the way out?" Ione asked, and Trowa nodded.

"Follow me," he said and led the way out, still keeping a sharp eye on his friend.

***

__

Chapter 15- Flames of War

Heero smiled grimly as he saw the chaotic scene unfold below him. In a way, he was glad that Trowa had come to his senses and he, Quatre and an unknown girl had escaped. _Time to plan my escape_, Heero thought to himself, as he knew that Quatre's empathic wave had disrupted whatever had made him weak.

"Take him back to his cell, and make sure those three don't escape," Locke ordered and Heero stood up. He felt a gun poke into the small of his back and he walked out of the observation room.

"Do you think Premier Dabnerba would mind that we kill him where he stands?" he heard one of the guards mutter.

"Who knows, let's just release him and take pot shots," another guard said and Heero stopped walking. He turned around and saw that one of the guards had a release key and swiped it over his binders. They clattered to the ground and he closed his eyes as he heard the double clicking of two guns whose safety button was off.

Heero snapped opened his eyes and suddenly kicked one of the guards in the chest sending him into a wall. The guard sagged against the wall, dead. He quickly spun around and jabbed two fingers at the neck of the other one, cutting off his air supply. Heero picked up the two discarded guns and ran down the hall marked Hanger Bay.

He ran across a bridge that stretched the whole length of the hanger bay and stopped suddenly. _Wing Zero, what did they bring it here for?_ Heero wondered as he saw his Gundam standing proud and tall, its form towering over the smaller mobile suits that looked like mini Vayaetes.

"Damage first…hmm…mission accepted," Heero said as he continued on, this time headed towards the reactor core. He made a detour to a small armory and picked up a few explosives.

***

Locke whirled around as she heard alarms blare throughout the base. "I want those prisoners found!" she shouted into the intercom that ran throughout the base.

"Ma'am! Heero Yuy has escaped," one of the guards informed her and Locke narrowed her eyes. Her hand suddenly shot out and snapped the guard's neck in a sickening crack.

She turned to an officer who was cowering at his station. "Get this ship moving, we're going to ram it into the Earth," she said coolly and left the observation room, headed towards the hanger bay.

***

Duo slashed at an Orion and what should have been a clean cut wasn't so clean after all. He pressed hard and finally the scythe went all the way through the mobile suit. He wrapped his black wings around him and shielded the blast.

"These guys are tough," Noin commented over the comm system.

"Well, you guys better get out of the way, cause the God of Death is coming through!" Duo shouted and powered his scythe's intensity blade to a level beyond the red line. He throttle up and slashed at a group of Orion mobile suits and then whipped around in a full three-hundred-sixty-degree circle and drew a green after trail as four Orion mobile suits suddenly had their innards wide open in space.

His eyes glowed as behind him, the mobile suits he had cut up, exploded, sending shards of hot metal and titanium/gundanium alloy into various parts of space. He turned the settings on his scythe back to normal and the beam had a wider arc. _Could things get any worse?_ He wondered to himself as he fired bullets from the shoulder gattling guns on his mobile suit.

"Uh oh, looks like the enemy called the Calvary in," Noin muttered over the comm system and Duo looked up to see a triangular battleship enter the fray.

"Aw hell…" Duo swore as he readied his scythe.

***

Relena sat rigid in her seat as the screen behind Field Marshal Tragati showed a raging battle between the Gundam pilots and Locke's forces.

"I have confirmed proof that the Colonies will not betray us. They want to help us defeat this common enemy, the Omicron Empire," Tragati said over the muffled sounds of battle.

"Where is this proof you talk about?" Hikari said defiantly and Relena repressed a snort. _The lady still don't get it, the Colonies are the ones who are our biggest allies and she goes around flaunting her pompous speeches_, Relena thought darkly and she stood up from her seat.

"Miss Komosagi, I may be of service to answer your question," Relena said in a loud clear voice and held up a hand to stop Tragati from saying anything.

"Very well Vice Foreign Minister, you may speak, but if I don't hear what I like, then the decision is final, someone will have to take your place," Hikari said and Relena blinked. There were a couple of gasps coming from various places in the room.

"The Colonies…we thought that they were a bunch of non supporting people, almost like a second class to us. We thought that if we controlled them, then everything was fine. Their needs had no concern to us, because they were space, not earth. The Colonies are our greatest allies. They helped us through many wars, like Romefeller's takeover and surrender, the remnants of White Fang's opposition, Mariemaia's Operation Meteor, Jennifer Kushrenada's Project Totality and most of all, this recent threat to our peace, the Omicron Empire. Without the Colonies, where would our freedom be?" Relena asked and began to see some heads of the representatives starting to nod in agreement.

"That's a pretty speech, but what about all those times in which the Colonies betrayed us, like with the leader Heero Yuy's assassination twenty-five years ago. Also the destruction of your family's kingdom," Hikari countered folding her arms on her chest as she smirked in triumph.

"I was getting to that," Relena said, "Yes, the Colonies made a grave mistake by assassinating Heero Yuy, but they have tried so hard to maintain ties with each other and the Earth, trying to preserve the peace. The Sank Kingdom's destruction was not of the Colonies, it was the Earth Sphere Alliance."

Relena heard a few intakes of breaths as she made that statement in which the public had never heard before.

"The…Alliance?" Nelson breathed in awe.

"The Alliance when it was manipulated by OZ and Romefeller in the background," Relena explained quickly.

"Vice Foreign Minister Peacecraft," Hikari started and Relena looked at the older woman, "On behalf of the South Asian Countries, I apologize for the misunderstandings we had in the past. Let us fight this opposition together for the sake of humanity."

Relena quirked a small smile as Hikari crossed the room to shake her hand.

***

__

Chapter 16- Fire in my Soul

Quatre seated himself in the cockpit of the shuttle they had came in and glanced behind him to see Ione and Trowa enter. He pushed a button and the door to the shuttle closed.

"Shuttle fine?" Ione asked as she ran a diagnostic check on the systems.

"Weapons haven't been tampered," Trowa reported, seating himself behind the co-pilot and pilot, "looks like Dabnerba's moving this thing out of the field and the destination is Earth."

"What she plan to do, another Operation Meteor?" Quatre muttered mostly to himself as he piloted the shuttle out of the battleship.

"We've got three bogeys coming at eleven o'clock, bearing mark two-two-three," Ione reported and Quatre sideswiped the shuttle to avoid the deadly energy lasers of the Orion mobile suits.

Suddenly there was a slightly rocking and Quatre was almost thrown out of his seat. "Trowa, how bad are we hit?" he asked.

"Engine's loosing power," Trowa reported and Quatre narrowed his eyes.

"Not good," he whispered then glanced at the comm system on the shuttle as it crackled to life.

"Master Quatre, may we be of assistance?" Rashid's voice came over and Quatre looked up to see one of the Orion mobile suits explode and a Maganac mobile suit flew past the remaining debris.

"Uncle! Boy are we glad to see you!" Ione said excitedly.

"Ione, what are you doing out here?" Rashid's voice came back, stern and angry. Quatre hid a smile as he saw her cheerful expression slide into an angry one.

"Hey! I'm a Maganac, so that means I can help Quatre," Ione said angrily pounding a fist on the board.

"All right," Rashid sighed with resentment. "We have your mobile suit, Master Quatre, and an extra one for your Ione," he came back.

"Did you bring Heavyarms Kai from its repair docks?" Quatre asked, glancing at Trowa who nodded a slight thank you.

"Yes," Rashid replied and Quatre suddenly thought up of an idea.

"Rashid, get our suits onto an asteroid, we're gonna ditch this shuttle and hope they fall for the ploy," Quatre said and he saw Ione and Trowa slip their helmets on, their faces looked kind of blue with the visor down.

"Will do, Master," Rashid replied and Quatre punched in a sequence of codes that started the self-destruct count down. He took his helmet and snapped it firmly to his black-blue Preventer suit and slipped the visor down, tinting everything to a slight shade of blue.

"We have thirty seconds before this shuttle blows, lets move," Quatre ordered and went to the back of the shuttle.

***

Zechs snapped his heat whip at an Orion mobile suit and its fine end, made from pure energy, ripped through the heart of the mobile suit, killing whoever the pilot was inside.

"Colonel Merquise, I've called the _Galaxia_ to help us! She'll be arriving in about five minutes," an officer said before his comm system fizzled.

"We don't have five minutes," Zechs muttered under his breath as he fired his mega beam cannon at the battleship that had arrived on the scene. He was surprised that the beam cannon only made a small burn mark on the hull, barely scratching it.

"We've come this far, we can't give up now," Zechs said over the comm system then another voice interrupted him.

"This is Vice Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft. On behalf of the Alliance and the Colonies, we do not recognize your authority and we ask you to surrender peacefully. Do not comply with these orders, we have deadly forces ready to defend us," Relena's voice came over and Zechs stared at the comm system in surprise. He had never heard his sister say that; after all, she was the heiress to the Peacecraft kingdom and a straight and true pacifist.

"Here is the Omicron Empire's reply…_go to_ _hell_ you pacifists," Locke's voice ripped through the systems and Zechs felt angry at that statement.

"No one, talks like that to my sister," he said through clenched teeth and shot forward towards the battleship, dropping his beam cannon and drawing out his beam saber. He slashed at a few Orion mobile suits and ducked to avoid bullets coming from some of the Orion's double shoulder gattling guns.

"Hey, Zechs, need any help?" Quatre's voice came over and he looked beyond the battleship to see two Gundams and forty Maganac mobile suits speeding towards them.

"How do I know that you aren't one of them," Chaing's voice came over cold and had an air of distrust.

"I think the Maganacs gives them the right minded cause, Wufei," Duo replied and cheered, "finally here's a real battle."

Zechs smiled grimly and slashed at another Orion, decapitating its head. They had to win for the sake of the Earth.

***

Heero ran through the endless corridors of the battleship, keeping his gun out in case he met any resistance. He skidded to a stop as he past a wide-open chamber. _What the hell…_ Heero wondered as he went in. Although his face didn't show any emotions, he was in a mix of emotions on the inside, at what he was looking at. There were numerous tubes, large ones that held cryogenically frozen people in them and they were hung up on the walls, lining the whole chamber. In the middle was a pinkish glowing column of light and Heero assumed it was the power source for the cryogenic tubes.

"I was wondering when you would find out about my little secret," a voice said behind him and Heero spun around, whipping his gun out and pointed it at Locke.

"Your clones," Heero stated flatly, his eyes cautious as he realized this was the same situation he was in on the Lunar Base. He had to be careful around the hive-mind cyborg.

"Come now, Wing Zero, you don't even realize how foolish you are. These clones aren't ordinary, they are Zero System implanted clones, and each one is designed to seek out everyone of you Gundam pilots, Preventer leaders, and most of all, Vice Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft. You'd never admit it, but I know that you have feelings for her and she does in return for you. Poor young lovers, too bad that you have to die again, but that won't matter, she thinks you're dead already," Locke said grinning sadistically. Suddenly she whipped out her gun and pressed the trigger, never letting go.

Heero ducked in time to avoid the bullets that were coming at him and he returned fire. Both warriors side-swerved each other, until they met up, guns at each other's heads, ready to blow each of their brains out.

"You're out of bullets, Wing Zero," Locke whispered smiling.

"So are you," Heero replied and punched Locke in the stomach, but she grabbed his hand and flipped him on his back. Heero flipped himself back up just as Locke's foot came down where he was, trying to crush his neck and he grabbed it, and twisted her leg, sending her to the ground.

"Are you always like this, hurting young girls?" Locke asked innocently as she got to her feet and punched him a few times before brining up her left leg in a head kick.

Heero ducked underneath the kick and jabbed her in the stomach, making her back up a couple of steps. "You're not a young girl, you're someone who I have a mission to destroy," Heero said, glaring at her.

"Didn't you say that to Relena Peacecraft?" Locke asked flipping gracefully backwards avoiding a flurry of blows Heero launched at her.

"What has Relena got to do with this?" Heero asked, moving his hands fast as he blocked Locke's blows that were lightning fast.

"Everything," Locke said as they traded blows. Suddenly Heero turned and ran towards a wall. He ran up the wall then flipped over Locke and landed behind her. He quickly scissors kicked her in the back, sending her into the wall, hard. He smiled grimly as he saw her slump to the floor, unconscious.

Heero then ran from the chamber and reached the power core of the whole ship. "I'll destroy the object," Heero echoed softly to himself as he remembered telling Chaing Wufei when they were headed towards the Lunar Base that he was deciding whether or not to destroy the mobile suits when they got there.

Heero placed the explosives on various parts of the core and set the timer. _This will go off when I hit the self detonate device_, he thought to himself then headed back towards the Hanger Bay on the ship. On the ground, a small cylinder with a red button laid winking in the depths of the ship.

***

__

Chapter 17- Tides of Battle

Quatre glanced at his sensors, which showed mostly enemies and very few allies. The _Galaxia_ had arrived and was at least trimming down the line of enemy by a few mobile suits, but it was only still, a few.

"When's the last time you had a proper battle, Winner," a sharp voice startled him from his thoughts and he turned around, his heat scythes ready, and faced an Orion mobile suit that looked like it had a revamped system and weapons.

"Sierra, you don't want to do this," Quatre said warningly, hoping that Tano's sister would be more considerate and understanding.

"No, Winner, you just don't want to die. You will join my brother in his grave. You killed him," Sierra accused him and drew out a baton that was about three of the Orion's hand length. She pressed two buttons and from both ends of the baton, green energy blades shot out.

"I didn't kill Tano," Quatre denied as he throttled back to avoid her first strike. He brought one of his heat scythes up in a parry and sparks crackled.

"You killed him, you destroyed our family, you deserve to die," Sierra countered, twisting the double-blade in her hands like an expert in the field of martial arts. She thrusted on towards his head then suddenly reversed the process and slashed at his right leg.

Quatre blocked all of the blows, and gritted his teeth with effort as he pushed with his heat scythes against Sierra's blade. "Tano destroyed my father, and if you kill me, what will you do next? What is your goal in this meaningless battle?" Quatre asked, then slashed at her, hoping to take off her hand, instead he sliced through the handle of the double-blade and one end spiraled away.

"This isn't a meaningless battle, this is revenge," Sierra replied, holding the now single beam saber in one hand and brought it up in a wide arc. Quatre moved to parry, but suddenly found the blade cutting deep into the shoulder of his Gundam.

He winced in pain as sparks flew everywhere in the cockpit of his Gundam, and electrical currents ran through the systems. "Sierra, I still have a weapon that will destroy us. You really want to die?" Quatre asked, then cried out in pain as one current lanced into his left shoulder, his weakened shoulder. He dropped his heat scythes as the system started to short-circuit everything.

"No, I just want _you_ to die," Sierra replied, her voice emotionless as she continued to cut through Quatre's Gundam.

"You won't be killing anyone today, girl! Not while I'm around!" Ione's voice crackled throughout the system and Quatre glanced up to see a Maganac mobile suit, marked 04 holding his dropped scythes. He saw her throttle up, then powered up his scythes until they glowed a crimson red and ran through Sierra's Orion mobile suit.

"Ione!" Quatre shouted as the mobile suit exploded with Ione inside the explosion. He shielded his eyes from the blast and when it died down, he saw her standing in a prone position, the heat scythes still glowing red as they were pointed near her feet, crossed together.

"Told ya, my skills are good," Ione commented and Quatre smiled with relief as he hear the other Maganacs laugh with pride and joy for one of their kind.

***

Noin activated her ten planet defenses that usually surrounded her, but had then change into pairs of crackling electric currents. They shot off in different directions, hitting the Orion mobile suits from unexpected places and sliced through them easily.

"That piece of junk actually works!" she heard Duo exclaim through the comm system and repressed a snort.

"What do you think, Maxwell? If this thing doesn't work then why would I be piloting it?" Noin replied then brought out her flame-thrower, much like Chaing's Altron, and filled a semi-circle of flames around herself. She then activated her wing vulcans and shot forward with speed almost like the Gundams and the head of her flame-thrower ripped through an Orion mobile suit. It exploded a few seconds later.

"Everyone, we have to stop the battleship, it's going to crash to the Earth!" Quatre's voice came over and Noin narrowed her eyes in anger.

"Roger that," she said and dropped her flame-thrower. Immediately a beam gun shot to her left hand and she gripped it with both hands. _Locked on target_, Noin thought to herself as she lined up her targeting system with the bridge of the ship and squeezed the trigger.

She noticed that all the other Gundam pilots and the Galaxia firing all their weapons in their arsenal trying to stop the massive warship. A bright flash occurred as all missiles, beam cannons, lasers, energy fields crashed against the battleship. Noin shielded her eyes then lowered her arm as the glare faded away.

"Yeah! We did it!" Duo shouted over the comm link and Noin grinned as she saw the ship in millions of pieces.

"Wait, getting reports that a section of the ship is still on propulsion and is still headed towards Earth," Ione's voice came back gravely.

"Dammit, is this another Operation Meteor?" Noin cursed as she saw through horrified eyes a piece of the battleship continuing its descent.

***

Trowa poured destruction and bullets upon the Orion mobile suits that were trying to converge on him. _Hawk, you'd better be watching this, because you don't control me anymore_, he thought as he glanced around, then shot off the leftover missiles that didn't hit the battleship, at the Orions, exploding some of them.

"Space is for the lonely hearts, not for the evil ones…the ones that want to cause war," Trowa muttered to himself as he dropped one of his empty double-gattling guns and a large knife sprang from his right wrist, it's sharp blade glistening in the sun.

"Trowa Barton, you defied my plans…why?" Hawk's voice came over and Trowa saw a shuttle fly from the remains of the battleship. He wanted to cut it apart, but something inside him prevented him from slicing it up with his knife.

"Hawk, you and Ralph are the same, all looking for greater power, greater glory. You don't deserve to be in space," Trowa replied and made a move to intercept the shuttle.

"So, why don't you just end it for me?" Hawk replied acidly.

Trowa struggled to bring his knife down upon the shuttle, but found that he couldn't. "I…I…can't," he whispered as he hung his head down.

"Hey buddy, what's wrong?" Duo's voice came over and Trowa looked up to see Deathscythe Hell open one of its missile ports.

Before he knew what he was doing, he saw a missile launch from the Deathscythe Hell, and found himself protecting the shuttle. Trowa was thrown into his seat as the missile impacted him instead of the shuttle.

"Trowa, you all right? What happened? Did the shuttle escape?" Duo's concerned voice filtered into his system and Trowa shook his head to clear his mind. _What the hell just happened?_ He wondered to himself.

"Uh…yeah…shuttle's gone," Trowa mumbled a reply as he glanced behind him and saw Hawk's shuttle escape into the depths of space. _We will meet again Hawk, and next time, I won't be so generous_, Trowa thought as he turned back around to face the incoming onslaught of mobile suits.

***

__

Chapter 18- Battleship Omicron

Heero floated into the cockpit of his Gundam Wing Zero, feeling the familiar surroundings come to life as he activated the Zero System in his Gundam and closed the hatch. He strapped himself in and powered the Gundam to life. Suddenly the whole Hanger Bay grew dark and Heero drew out his beam saber. Amongst the glow, he saw the outline of a mobile suit; its eyes glowed an eerie green.

"Wing Zero, in time you will fall," Locke's cold voice filtered through the system. Locke's mobile suit stepped into the glow of his beam saber and he saw that it had an uncanny resemblance to the Gundams, but had the outline of a Columbia mobile suit. "Meet, my weapon that Dr. Newman created, the Gundam Columbia-Zero," Locke said and Heero narrowed his eyes.

He readied his saber and suddenly shot forward and sliced at Locke. She drew out a purple saber and blocked his blow. Heero came face to face with her Gundam and knocked his shoulder into her jaw, sending her flying back. He glanced out the hanger bay for a quick second and saw that the Earth was in view and getting closer. "You will fall, Dabnerba, I intend to survive," Heero replied grimly.

Locke regained control of her Gundam and shot forward. The two Gundams battled each other, sending sparks everywhere. Heero ducked underneath Locke's blade and brought his hand around in a parry. But Locke blocked the blow with her shield and fired her gattling guns at Heero. He staggered back as he was pelted with the bullets, then held his shield up.

"You don't understand my mission, Heero Yuy, you are an anomaly to space, you are the heart of space that needs to stop beating," Locke yelled as she stopped firing her guns and twirled out of the way as Heero slashed at her.

"Space does not need people like you," Heero replied and felt something oddly familiar. This was almost like the battle Zechs had with him around five years ago. _If this is like it, will the consequences be different or the same_, Heero wondered as his addled Zero System induced wits alerted him of a back attack. He reached out with his shield and stopped Locke's purple saber from slicing into his unprotected back.

"Space is dead, only the Earth will rule, and so will the Omicron Empire," Locke replied.

"Not a smart move, you let your emotions get the best of you," Heero said sarcastically as he saw her make an error and dove in. Locke backed away, a deep cut coming from the middle of her Columbia-Zero.

"Wing Zero…" Locke whispered growling underneath her breath, "die!"

Heero opened his white wings and shot forward meeting Locke head to head. He sliced under her and felt the breeze of her saber trying to get through his defenses. He landed behind her and glanced behind. Her mobile suit was sparkling with massive injuries and the hand holding her saber fell to the ground.

"You lost…now you will lie among your so-called clones in the asteroid fields," Heero said and held up the self-detonate button for the explosives. He pressed the button, but nothing happened. _What?_ Heero wondered as he glanced at the button.

"You are such a fool, you think that I would have let you taken the self-detonate button?" Locke's taunting voice came over and Heero glared at her.

He pressed the button twice and something did happen…

***

Duo looked on helpless to do anything as he saw the remaining part of the battleship make its way towards Earth. They had used up all their missiles and all they had left were their sabers, blades, scythes and hand weapons.

"All we have left are the self destruct buttons in our Gundams," Duo whispered to himself and he glanced at the small cylinder, the size of his palm, sitting in his hand. All he needed to do was to go inside the remaining piece and self-destruct to destroy the part of the battleship.

"This is Duo here, I'm going in to destroy the battleship," Duo announced and immediately heard a reply.

"Duo, you don't have any weapons except for your scythe, what do you mean destroy the battleship?" Noin's voice came over.

"The self-destruct button," Chaing replied and Duo was silent. _Thank you Wufei for disrupting my plan_, he thought sarcastically to the Chinese warrior. Suddenly the battleship that had been headed towards Earth exploded without warning.

"What the…" Duo started then his jaw dropped open as he saw a familiar bird-fighter racing from the shockwave, threatening to overtake it.

"Heero?" Duo yelled over the system.

"Mission accomplished, Omicron Empire destroyed," Heero's voice came back and Duo grinned happily. He heard the others cry out with joy as their co-leader came back seemingly from the dead.

"Glad to have you back," Chaing's voice came over and Duo could detect a hint of relief in the egotistical pilot's voice.

"Heero, you survived!" Quatre's voice came over and Duo heard a whole bunch of joy, relief, and compassion pouring from the young Arabic's tone.

"He's quite the pilot," Trowa echoed what he said about Heero five years ago after he destroyed the chunk of Libra that was plunging towards earth.

"Relena was worried, glad you're back," Zechs said and Duo tried to repress a hooting that threatened to come out of his voice. He was glad that his best friend was back and grinned.

***

__

Chapter 19- One Thing Remains

Quatre descended his Sandrock Kai, glad that it had helped him through another battle. Suddenly he was knocked off his feet as a pair of hands wrapped around him in a hug.

"Quatre, you did it!" Ione said joyfully and Quatre returned the hug. He looked deep into her ocean blue eyes and saw love glisten in them. Before his mind registered what he was doing, he found her wrapped in his embrace, kissing each other like long lost lovers.

"Go Quatre!!" Duo's voice cried out and he glanced through the corner of his eyes to see half of the Gundam pilots getting out of their Gundam and the Maganacs looking at him shocked expressions written all over their faces, especially Rashid's. He broke away from Ione and glanced sheepishly at Rashid.

"It is done! My niece will be wedded to Master Quatre!" Rashid shouted and pumped a fist up into the air in happiness.

"What?" Quatre started then felt Ione's comforting hand wrap around his waist.

"Don't worry, Uncle Rashid's always like this," Ione whispered to him and Quatre raised his eyebrows in puzzlement.

***

Heero got off his Gundam, which was in bird-mode and took one glance at what Duo was yelling and crowing about. _Hmm, Quatre deserves that_; Heero thought as a ghost of a smile appeared on his lips.

"Heero!" he heard a distanced voice shouted and turned around to see Relena Peacecraft running towards him.

"Relena," Heero whispered as he felt his burdened soul rise up in slight joy. For the first time in his life, he was glad to see her.

"I missed you," Relena said suddenly shy as she stared at the ground. Heero looked at her puzzled then tipped her chin up so her eyes were locked on to his.

"You don't need to worry anymore, I will protect you," Heero said in a confident voice and kissed her lightly on her cheek.

"Aw, how cute," Duo's loud voice interrupted their moment and Heero saw a flash and the whirling sound of a picture being taken.

He glared at the American who was holding a camera and flashing away at everyone. "Duo, you are one dead pilot," he growled and chased him, trying to get the camera away from him.

***

__

Epilogue- Gundam Pilots Forever

It was the year After Colony 200, the year in which the Omicron Empire was defeated. Zechs Merquise was wedded to Lucrezia Noin a few days after the battle. The Gundam pilots retired their Gundams to different places, Wing Zero and Deathscythe Hell resided on the Sweepers Base, while Sandrock Kai, Heavyarms Kai, and Altron resided on Colony 04. In the aftermath of the Hidden Agent Program, the people effected were taken for testing and the nano probes inside them were taken out. The Gundam pilots got on with their lives and peace was constant.

***

A single tube floated among the asteroid fields, looking like a grave mixed in with the stones. The plate of the tube held a single lone body of a young woman, her breathing echoed throughout the desolate regions of the asteroid field. Her raven black hair framed her almond shaped eyes. On her dog tag, it read: Locke Dabnerba.

***

__

Everything, including the present and the future, are in the flames of war

All are enveloped in the struggle-and becomes an illusion…

So our lives and the smiles that are fading out

Will surely make the new world…

Genjitsu mo mirai mo tatakai no honoo ni

Tsutsumarete subete wa yume sa…

Dakara oretachi no inochi to keiteyuku egao ga

Atarashii sekai o tsukuru kanarazu…

Translation and Japanese Lyrics from-Ai Wa Ryuusei

(Trowa Barton's song)

**__**

Author's Final Notes:

Here's a preview of the character list I'm working on for the Gundam pilots' kids and their story…enjoy!

Vailo "Val" Yuy- 17 year old male

Tarrant Maxwell- 16 year old male

Reyna "Spitfire" Maxwell- 16 year old female

Adler Barton- 17 year old male

Cerelia "Neo" Winner- 15 year old female

Cavan Merquise- 18 year old male


End file.
